Rather than freezing growth, however, the move actually pushed pot entrepreneurs to quickly file applications in order to reserve their licenses (law enforcement could not shut them down while their applications were pending). Currently, there are now about 966 medical marijuana dispensaries registered in LA and the Los Angeles Times is calling this the city’s “latest retail craze.”

The paper has plotted out a map of the city’s burgeoning cottage industry that has revealed some interesting findings. For starters there are 58 applications registered on one street alone. Furthermore, although a proposed city ordinance would prohibit these growing weed shops from operating within 1,000 feet of a school, library, or park, if you look at the map, the LAT’s found tha at least 260 of those applications on file have addresses listed that would land them smack in the middle of one of these no-go areas. Apparently the review process is moving at a snail’s pace while savvy LA entrepreneurship is not.

In a city in a state with a gaping budget shortfall and some of the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates – it seems this situation is one that might give new heft to the perennially controversial debate over legalizing marijuana and its potential role as a way to generate new tax revenue…Then again it could all simply go up in smoke.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/running_small_business/archives/2009/09/more_weed_shops.html

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I knock on the locked door of the nondescript one-story building not far from downtown, willing away my anxiety.

“Can I help you?” A security guard peers from behind the door, eyeing me suspiciously. He’s an older guy, probably somebody’s grandpa, but he gives me a look that says he doesn’t have a problem tangling with a whippersnapper like me.

“I have an appointment,” I stammer. I have Xeroxed medical records and $200 in cash to prove it. At that, the security guard is all smiles.

“Come on in,” he offers, opening the door wide and beckoning me into one of Denver’s most successful
medical marijuana dispensaries.

I’m here to become a state-certified
medical marijuana patient. If I succeed, I’ll have access to one of the fastest-growing — and unusual — businesses around.

Colorado voters legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 2000 with the passage of Amendment 20, but until recently, the state’s medical marijuana community was small and fairly inconspicuous. As of January, 5,000 people had applied to the state registry, and there were less than two dozen dispensaries selling pot.

But that’s changed, thanks to the Obama administration’s move in March to end most dispensary raids, as well as a Colorado Board of Health decision in July that did nothing to limit the number of patients that
medical marijuana dispensaries can have. As of June 30, the Colorado
medical marijuana registry had swelled to more than 10,000 applicants, with the state receiving more than 400 new applications each day. To meet that demand, at least seventy Colorado dispensaries have opened, forty in the metro area alone.

Many of these are operated by what insiders are calling a “second wave” of ganjapreneurs — savvy, experienced businesspeople and professionals. Some honed their chops running ventures that have nothing to do with marijuana; others are opportunists from the heady California dispensary scene who see a new market ripe for investment.

In the meantime, legal consultants, insurance companies and real-estate brokers are carving out their own niche, building industry-wide infrastructure for a form of commerce that never before existed.

Whether any of it is truly legal — and whether any of it will last — is anybody’s guess, because marijuana, after all, is still illegal under federal law. And although Amendment 20 allows people in Colorado to use pot for medical reasons, the law says nothing about dispensaries or whether buying and selling marijuana at them is legal. (”Growth Industry,” February 5.)

“I saw it coming,” says Colorado Attorney General John Suthers about the growth of the dispensary industry, of which he disapproves. “Even when we looked at the amendment in 2000, it was very purposely designed, in my opinion, by the advocates so it was so broad you could drive a truck through it.”

Cities and towns aren’t waiting for Suthers and his colleagues to sort the laws out. To deal with the reality of a business model that isn’t going away, one municipality after another is looking into their zoning or planning codes, and some have passed dispensary-specific rules, like where they can be located and what type of signage is allowed.

I’m not waiting, either. Past the security guard, I can see a brightly lit, professional-looking operation. People shuttle paperwork to and fro, chatting and laughing. It’s a far cry from a drug-dealing operation — though a familiar smell lingers in the air. No time for second thoughts: I’m already late for my appointment.

I step inside, ready to get medicated.

Mardick has just launched Golden’s first marijuana dispensary, and behind a discreet curtain, a glass display case offers marijuana strains with names like Bubble Berry, AK-47 and Pot of Gold, plus an assortment of cannabis-infused edibles.

“I have never seen an economic model like this,” he says of his new undertaking. “It’s unheard of. Economists don’t know how to forecast the industry.”

A former medical technician and environmental scientist by trade, Mardick had been laid off from a couple of jobs in the past few years when he got the idea to open a dispensary. A
medical marijuana patient himself — he’s been diagnosed with a large hiatal hernia, a serious gastrointestinal ailment — he’d been using his botany background to grow medicine for a half-dozen patients.

In February of this year, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which oversees the state
medical marijuana registry, revealed that it was considering limiting marijuana caregivers to providing for a maximum of five patients — a move that would have put dispensaries out of business, since they need more than five customers to survive.

But at a heavily attended hearing on July 20, the Colorado Board of Health, the advisory board for CDPHE, voted against the proposed limitation. The decision was seen as a tacit endorsement of the dispensary model, and state registrar Ron Hyman says the state has received 6,000
medical marijuana patient applications since then.

Mardick wanted in on the action. He figured that if twenty people purchased a quarter-ounce of medicine from him each week, he’d net nearly $6,500 a month. So with an
investment of $15,000 — some of which he got from his father, because banks are reluctant to offer loans for such enterprises — he went into business.

He began by calling the Golden police chief, who told him that while he didn’t believe in marijuana use, he’d support the dispensary as long as it stayed within Colorado law. Mardick also talked with the city zoning department, which, after a week of deliberation — the staff had never considered a marijuana operation before — decided that Golden Alternative Care would be allowed to open in the city’s central business zone.

It took time to find an amenable landlord; many property owners refused to work with what they called a “drug dealer.” Mardick had to get a sales tax number, obtain a federal Employer Identification Number and register his company with the secretary of state as a limited-liability company. While he currently grows much of his medicine himself, he contracts with three Colorado growers who can each provide him within 24 hours with a quarter- to a half-pound of weed — just in case business booms.

And boom it might, considering the success of Mardick’s predecessors. In June, for example, Bob Carleton took a break from dabbling in mergers and acquisitions as the co-founder of Denver-based international strategic consulting firm Vector Group, to open Herbal Connections at 2209 West 32nd Avenue. Now he has upwards of 600 customers and some competition: At least two other dispensaries have opened in the neighborhood.

Because every aspect of the business, by law, has to stay within Colorado’s boundaries, the dispensary industry is essentially a statewide financial Petri dish — one that Carleton believes could grow to exorbitant dimensions. “You have this soon-to-be-half-billion-dollar industry with no infrastructure, and those don’t exist,” he says.

While the open nature of the industry is enticing, it also poses challenges. For instance, how do you get a loan for a copier or obtain a company credit card when national banks fear violating federal law if they work with dispensaries? How do you create dosage levels and quality standards for, say, a THC-infused trail bar when there are no health or medical regulations? How can dispensary owners work together without being guilty of racketeering as defined under the federal RICO act? It reminds Carleton of other places he’s worked that had big regulatory gaps — places like Macedonia, Russia and Azerbaijan.

“I spent a lot of time working in developing countries,” says Carleton. “It made it more intriguing thinking there is something like this in the United States.”

It’s intriguing to a lot of people.

Scott Durrah and Wanda James, the couple behind Eight Rivers restaurant in LoDo, are teaming up with Noah Westby, owner of DaGabi Cucina and Sole Coffee Roasters in Boulder, to open a Denver dispensary called the Apothecary of Colorado.

“The decriminalization of pot makes sense to us as a civil-rights issue, a medical issue and a legal issue,” says James. “That’s why we’re looking into opening a dispensary. I think medical marijuana is the first step, and I think legalization or decriminalization could be the next step.”

The trio is aiming for an up-market, professional atmosphere. “We are very proud of what has been done with the marijuana movement and the people who are involved, and we just want to create that second piece,” says James. “It’s the second generation of dispensaries, and we really want the 45-year-old professional to feel comfortable coming in.” They plan to model their business after Harborside Health Center, an Oakland, California, operation that, with its natural-wood decor, electronic checkout counters and on-site Buddha garden, is the Neiman Marcus of dispensaries.

They won’t be the only ones taking that approach; Harborside itself is coming to town.

On a recent afternoon, a well-dressed Californian named Don Dunkan stops by a vacant storefront downtown near the busy intersection of 22nd and Lawrence streets. “It’s an empty canvas,” he says of the 2,200-square-foot space — one that will be transformed into a swanky new breed of dispensary that will go by the name Local Product.

Dunkan is a partner in Harborside Management Consultants, an offshoot of Harborside Health Center that’s branded itself the “A-Team of medical cannabis.” The consulting group plans to help others launch Harborside-quality dispensaries around the country. Of the thirteen states besides California that allow medical marijuana use, the first place they decided to do so was in Colorado.

“We have been looking at Colorado for several years now, watching the scene,” says Dunkan. “I would say right now in the state of Colorado, there is a vacuum that needs to be filled. It’s an exciting place to be.”

It turns out I’m one of those young men with severe pain. I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for much of the past year for muscle spasms in my back, and I can say without a doubt that I’m not pretending to spend nights writhing in pain or walking around like Quasimodo just to score some reefer. On the other hand, I’m a much less appropriate candidate than someone battling cancer or suffering from muscular dystrophy. But that’s not for me to decide. That’s why I start calling around to find out about scoring a medical marijuana card.

I begin with the marijuana-focused doctor referral services. These operations have sprung up on the premise that many patients’ primary caregivers are reluctant to consider pot as medicine. My first call is to the relatively long-established THC Foundation, a three-year-old Wheat Ridge operation that’s part of a multi-state non-profit chain. My medical condition could warrant medical marijuana, says a THC Foundation representative — though she adds that they’re not about to provide me one with just my records from the chiropractor. “A chiropractor is not technically an M.D.,” she says. “We really need something from your physician.”

So I ring up the THC Foundation’s main competition: CannaMed in Denver. I’m a bit surprised to find out the place is still operating. A week earlier, FBI agents had raided the operation — not because of the pot, but because they suspected it was associated with an $80 million nationwide fraud scheme. The feds did confiscate CannaMed’s patient records, but attorney Charlie Crosse says no one at CannaMed was arrested or charged with crimes. “I am informed by the FBI that CannaMed is not a part of its case,” he says. It turns out CannaMed was quickly up and running again.

“Sure, we take chiropractic records,” the CannaMed representative tells me on the phone. It’ll set me back $200 for the CannaMed doctor’s visit, plus a $90 registration fee to the state, he says — or he can offer me a special deal for $50.

“$50?” I ask, incredulous.

The catch is that I have to let CannaMed choose my caregiver, the person who can grow up to six marijuana plants on my behalf, for one year. And during that time, I can’t grow medicine myself. “Can I switch my caregiver before then?” I ask.

“If you pay us $290,” he replies.

I’d heard about this process. Amendment 20 allows each medical marijuana patient to possess up to two ounces of marijuana or six marijuana plants at a time. Since these patients can alternatively assign these “pot rights” to a designated caregiver, the patients themselves have become a sort of key commodity in the blossoming industry.

Dispensaries and marijuana growers are trying to become the designated caregivers for as many patients as possible so they can increase the number of plants they’re allowed to grow. Some dispensaries are offering incentives to those who will sign over their caregivership. CannaMed, I’d been told, was offering this $50 “low-income” option because marijuana cultivators are sponsoring these patients in exchange for obtaining their pot rights — though there’s little guarantee that these growers were acting in a true caregiver role for these patients.

CannaMed referred all questions to its lawyer, Crosse, who says he doesn’t get into operational issues. “I don’t understand about the two price structures, and I am not informed, so I can’t comment on that issue,” he says.

As attractive as CannaMed’s price tag sounds, I decide it’s not worth signing away my pot rights. So instead I turn to the back pages of Westword, which has become a major marketing venue for medical marijuana businesses. Many dispensaries listed there advertise on-site doctors, though it’s a risky move. Amendment 20 instituted a referral-based state registry so that doctors wouldn’t be prescribing or helping patients obtain marijuana, since that practice could put them at risk of losing the Drug Enforcement Administration-issued license that lets them prescribe narcotics.

“It is my belief that having a doctor in a medical marijuana dispensary is too close to helping a patient get marijuana,” says Brian Vicente, executive director of the drug-policy reform organization Sensible Colorado, who consults with several dispensaries. “I think they are at risk of losing their license.”

Putting legal questions about these in-house doctors aside, I choose the operation with the biggest ad. The person who answers the phone explains that the dispensary works with a couple different doctors. Some won’t take chiropractic records, although the one who comes in on Wednesdays does — for a $110 fee, plus $90 to the state.

I make an appointment for the following Wednesday.

“I try not to be too paranoid, but truth of the matter is, under federal law it is not a hundred percent legal,” says Kevin. The risk is worth it, however, since Kevin’s services have been in high demand lately. With the number of marijuana patients swelling, the need for medicine has outpaced the supply. Some dispensaries have instituted limits on how much medicine its customers can buy so they can ration their stock.

Kevin is a caregiver for about twenty patients, which allows him to cultivate up to 120 plants on their behalf — though he’s careful never to cultivate more than 99 at a time — the amount that would trigger a five-year mandatory minimum drug sentence if federal authorities ever come knocking. Kevin gives each of his patients an ounce of free medicine a month; he sells the rest, roughly a pound a month, to half a dozen dispensaries in Denver and Colorado Springs for $250 an ounce. The dispensaries typically turn it around for nearly double that, he says.

Prices for marijuana vary widely, depending on the quality, the grower and the dispensary. As an example, however, a patient could typically buy a quarter ounce for $100 to $150 (on the high side). There are around 28 grams in an ounce, so if a person put half a gram in each joint and smoked one joint per day, that pot would last for two to three weeks. At that rate, a month’s worth of medicine would cost $200 to $300.

The industry has also spurred a wide range of pot-related support services and products. Lakewood commercial insurance agent Edward Leonard, for instance, helped a Boulder dispensary obtain a policy last October, and has since become the go-to guy for dispensary insurance, having worked with 23 operations.

“There are lots of insurance agents in Denver that would like to have this business,” says Leonard, since he’s one of the few who’s been able to find an insurance company (which he wouldn’t reveal) willing to write a policy that covers general liability and personal property at a dispensary, plus limited coverage for product for sale.

Then there’s Naresh Chandranatha, whose website, MMJLine, and call-in phone number, catalogues the ever-increasing number of Colorado dispensaries. “We are essentially a 411 for dispensaries,” says Chandranatha, who gets a few hundred calls a day for information. Dispensaries are listed for free, but some pay for advertising.

Those who want to grow their own meds might want to seek out the expertise of “Hans,” a legendary marijuana cultivator known for helping develop the “sea of green” mass-production technique. Hans recently relocated to Colorado from Tucson, and he’s teaching growing classes at a downtown dispensary, the Peace in Medicine Center.

Hans recently shot footage in town for his popular “Cooking with Marijuana” DVD series — quite fitting, since he filmed the first movies here a decade ago.

“The atmosphere in Denver ten years ago when we made the videos was such that we had to hide the house we were working in, we all wore masks, and we swore the cameramen to secrecy,” he says. “Now we did it in an open, public forum at Owsley’s Golden Road. We smoked right on stage, and the patients who were there with their cards were able to share in the food.”

In Crestone, two businessmen just opened the High Valley Healing Center, the state’s first medical cannabis retreat, and in Longmont, Mitchell Shenassa has been singing the praises of the Incredibowl. “We are putting people on the moon, and pipes haven’t changed in 300 years,” he explains. “For soccer moms and business executives who were smoking joints in high school, we wanted to step it up to the next level.”

Shenassa and his business partners spent the past three years developing three-dimensional models and working with engineers they located through Craigslist ads. The result was the Apollo 11 of weed pipes — featuring a polycarbonate expansion chamber and a smoke-injection nozzle — which now retails primarily at Colorado dispensaries for $200, or half that for registered patients. “The dispensaries are a new market,” Shenassa says.

I’m not the only one waiting for the doctor. One guy, who looks to be in his twenties, inquires about whether the physician can authorize him for more than two ounces of pot at a time, so he can keep enough product on hand to cook edibles with it. An elderly woman sitting next to me nervously tells a staff member, “My family has been pushing me to do this for a while.” She says she hasn’t touched the stuff in forty years. A young man who looks to be her grandson watches over her shoulder.

My paperwork filled out, I’m finally called to see the doctor. I’m led into a small office where an older man in shorts and a short-sleeved button-down shirt sits behind a desk. The desk is empty save for a takeout menu for Cheba Hut, a restaurant franchise specializing in “toasted” (wink, wink) subs. He immediately gets down to business.

“I know why you are here, but why are you here?” he asks, and it takes me a moment to realize he wants to see my medical records. I hand over my chiropractor’s notes and mumble nervously about my symptoms. I feel like I’m back in high school, taking a major test — one I might be cheating on.

The doctor reads over my records, then clears his throat. “There’s only one problem,” he says. My spirit drops; it sounds like I’m about to fail.

“I don’t know what to write down for your diagnosis,” he continues, gesturing to my state registry application. I realize he can’t find the chiropractor’s diagnosis on my medical records. I point to the top of a page where my chief complaints are listed as muscle spasms and tortacollis, a painful neck and back condition. “Oh,” he says, satisfied. “I didn’t look up that high.

“Tortacollis isn’t bad,” he says. “That’s serious.” But it would be better, he adds, if I got some additional diagnoses, maybe have some X-rays done. No rush, he adds. Just think about it for next year, when you come in for a renewal.

And with a flash of his pen, he recommends me as a medical marijuana patient. “Okay,” he says, concluding our five-minute appointment. “You’re all set.”

Rob Corry, a Denver-based legal consultant for several dispensaries, spoke up at the hearing to argue that the moratorium would be a mistake. “It would be a bad idea for the City of Englewood to remove itself from this growing — no pun intended — industry in Colorado,” he said. “The City of Englewood would be walking away from hundreds of thousands of dollars, potentially millions of dollars, in potential revenue.”

It wasn’t enough to appease the concerns of Englewood’s city council, however, which passed the moratorium. Corry told councilmembers that, going forward, if they needed help developing regulations, he’d be happy to offer his services free of charge.

Englewood is not alone in its confusion. Dozens of dispensaries have opened in the past months in places like Wheat Ridge, Federal Heights, Lakewood, Littleton and Highlands Ranch. And while Aurora and Greenwood Village have laws preventing them from issuing business licenses to operations that violate federal law, other cities and towns have discovered that they have no rules about dispensaries whatsoever.

In the past month, Durango, Steamboat Springs, Craig, Basalt, Dillon, Breckenridge, Silverthorne, Frisco and Northglenn have all instituted temporary moratoriums on new dispensaries until they develop guidelines for them. Some municipalities, like Aspen, have decided that dispensaries should be treated like pharmacies when it comes to zoning issues, while others see them as nuisance businesses like strip clubs that should be a certain distance from schools and public parks. Denver and Boulder aren’t currently considering any dispensary-specific policies.

Commerce City recently revised its city code to include rules for dispensaries (it prohibits public advertisement and outdoor use of medical marijuana), but other communities are reluctant to follow suit, because there’s little legal precedent for anything other than requiring that they have a business license and pay sales tax. To figure out how Wheat Ridge should proceed, city staff there borrowed recommendations from “Medical Education and Dispensary Safety,” a guide prepared by Colorado Springs-based Cannabis Therapeutics, one of the oldest and largest dispensaries around.

But city officials in Englewood and elsewhere might be wise to take Corry up on the offer of free advice. He and two other Colorado lawyers — Brian Vicente at Sensible Colorado and Warren Edson, co-author of Amendment 20 — know more about the dispensary industry here than anybody, since they’ve built it from the ground up.

Nearly every dispensary seems to keep at least one of these three legal gatekeepers on retainer, and they constantly rely on their opinions, not to mention their Rolodexes of marijuana-friendly landlords, realtors and doctors. “Everything you do, you contact your attorney and you develop a procedure that you think is the best argument in court,” says Jill Leigh, co-owner of a dispensary called Boulder County Caregivers. “You have three attorneys who essentially developed dispensary policy in the state.”

The legal trio didn’t have a choice, says Vicente; no one else was going to do it. “The three of us have been guiding people to act in a proper and legal manner,” says Vicente. “Warren, Rob and myself attend a handful of conferences a year and learn how to effectively mold this industry. It’s fleshing out the law in favor of patient providers.”

The key for dispensaries and vendors, says Vicente, is to develop a web of patients and caregivers. When a new dispensary opens, for example, its owner or employees have to be designated caregivers for enough patients to legally warrant all the pot they have at the operation. These caregivers will have to take on more patients as business grows, and they need additional product. If the dispensary contracts with outside growers to provide them with marijuana, some of its customers will likely have to designate these growers as their caregivers so the crops abide by state law.

Since there are no rules about dispensaries, however — in Amendment 20 or anywhere else — many patients haven’t limited themselves to shopping only at the dispensary associated with their designated caregiver. And many enterprises are operating under the premise that as soon as a patient walks in their door, that dispensary becomes his or her de facto primary caregiver for the duration of the visit. That means that any patient can buy marijuana there without changing his or her designated caregiver.

Several questions remain about these arrangements. Can caregivers really sell leftover pot they don’t provide to their patients to other caregivers and to other caregivers’ patients? Is it really permissible for patients to frequent any dispensary in town? What is legal and what isn’t may eventually come down to a court battle, and that’s where the dispensary model could be tested. “They’re juggling medical marijuana cards and ounces,” says Scott Carr, Colorado manager of the THC Foundation. “If you are not the caregiver, you are not protected if you take money for the cannabis. Everyone seems to be excited by the California model, but nobody seems to read the law.”

Ted Tow, executive director for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, agrees that dispensaries don’t hold up to legal scrutiny. “Medical marijuana is legal, but nothing says by definition that dispensaries are,” he says. “We didn’t define them in the amendment. We define everything else in the constitution. If you pull out the blue-book description they put out about Amendment 20, it specifically said it will not legalize the distribution of marijuana. And that’s what dispensaries do.”

So far, law-enforcement agencies have largely left the dispensaries alone — possibly because Amendment 20 suggests that the authorities would have to continue cultivating any marijuana they seized from dispensaries or grow facilities until they obtained a conviction in court.

But this could change.

Attorney General Suthers suggests that the state Board of Medical Examiners should look into parts of the medical marijuana industry; he adds that he may have his own office do so, too. “We knew we would have these dispensaries and have thousands more patients than medicine would dictate. You would have a lot of people claiming chronic pain without much specificity. And the roles of medical marijuana would be pretty large.”

Dispensary owners and their legal advisors say they’d like to work with state officials to clear up vagaries in the law and develop reasonable regulations, but they say they don’t have much confidence that state officials are willing to work with them.

“There is a history of the state engaging in underhanded tactics in an attempt to destroy and weaken the medical marijuana law,” says Vicente. As an example, he points to the fact that the health department first instituted the five-patient rule at a closed meeting in 2004, a fact that led Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves to suspend that limit in 2007 because it lacked public input. Then, at the Board of Health hearing to consider re-instating that limit this past July, health officials said the average medical marijuana patient age had recently plummeted from 42 to 24, insinuating that patients were abusing the system. A week later, however, the health department noted there’d been a numerical error and the actual average patient age was 41.

Leigh at Boulder County Caregivers is playing it safe by requiring her customers to designate someone associated with the dispensary as their caregiver and refusing to host doctor referral services on site. While her business is still growing by leaps and bounds — she’s planning to open two additional locations in the Boulder area — she doesn’t like having to second-guess every business decision she makes.

“I would like to see some legislation that clarifies the law, but I don’t see that happening,” she says. “Now anything officials do to change it will end up in court. If law enforcement and district attorneys don’t deal with it, we are going to stay in this gray area forever.”

I find what I’m looking for the next day in a tidy, sunlit kitchen. Here, three women are hard at work: rolling maraschino cherries in fondant and dipping them in Ghirardelli dark chocolate, slicing up cookie pans of coconut crunch bars into bit-sized hunks, assembling confectionary boxes jam-packed with professional-looking sweets. All of it is made with cannabis-infused oils or butters.

The women, wearing matching aprons and pot-leaf bracelets, are Jennifer Hawkins, Jennifer Smith and Katie (last name withheld), but they usually go by their company name, the Candy Girls. For a while, they operated under the title Growers for God, since they believe the Tree of Life was a cannabis plant, but their customers kept calling them the Candy Girls, and the name stuck. The undertaking began less than a year ago, when the women began making cannabis-infused candies for medical marijuana patients they knew who couldn’t afford to buy their own. Soon dispensaries started seeking out their repertoire of chocolate truffles, lemon pies and mini-cheesecakes.

“People who will never, ever smoke pot will eat it,” says Hawkins. “It’s a whole additional market of people.” The candies go for about $4 each.

Now they bake up about 800 goodies a week for eight Colorado dispensaries, including a customer who drives in from Grand Junction and a Chinese restaurant in Colorado Springs that sells their medicated chocolate-dipped cherries. They obtain raw cannabis from outside growers and make sure they’re covered under state law by having some of the customers at each of the dispensaries they contract with designate one of the Candy Girls as their caregiver. To keep these relationships personal, the Candy Girls hold meet-and-greets with their patients, as recommended by their lawyer, Edson.

It wasn’t always like this, says Hawkins. Diagnosed with a seizure disorder, she was one of the first hundred Coloradans to get a medical marijuana card. To get it, she had to go to twenty different doctors before one was willing to help her. And she visited some dispensaries so shady that she was glad she’d brought her husband along.

Now, not only is their medicine of choice gaining acceptability, but it’s helping them support their families. “From my position, we were all in a really difficult spot in life,” says Hawkins, who’d been laid off from her previous job. “This became an opportunity, and everything has fallen into place.”

When the Candy Girls hear I’m a new patient, they offer me a sample box of their signature specialties: chocolates, brownies and trail bars, several of which feature stickers that say “For medicinal use only.” Enjoy it, they tell me, with one note of warning: No matter how good they might taste, it’s best to sample one at a time.

I’ve never been so excited to take my medicine.

(By Joel Warner | Denver Westword News)

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Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding Medical Marijuana market. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine has brought marijuana to a new status, and opened the door for investment and opportunity.

Tax Collection

The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The “Point of Sale” (POS) system will recognize the dispensary’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provide “Automated Clearing House” (ACH) settlement of the taxes to the proper financial institutions. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.

Internal Management

All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value card also eliminates the risks of carrying cash. For the investor looking to open more than one dispensary, this card allows him the ease of mind of knowing all transactions are accounted for in all of his locations.

Solutions

Medical Marijuana, Inc. is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.

ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA, INC.
Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine, and as an effective, non-narcotic pain reliever, has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. has developed a suite of turnkey business and management solutions for the fledgling medical marijuana collective industry in California. The growing number of other states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana have yet to establish a system for the legalized commercial production and sale of the medicine. These regions are also strong potential targets for Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s products and services down the road. It is likely that other states will follow California’s basic lead as the Golden State more specifically defines the regulations and protocol that are shaping the supply-side of the legal medical marijuana sector.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medical Marijuana, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

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Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Official Website
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Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Tax Remittance Card Flier

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According to The Metropolitan News-Enterprise, on August 18, 2009, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals reinstated felony charges against Stacy Hochanadel, John Campbell and John Bednar, the operators of CannaHelp, a medical marijuana dispensary located in Riverside County, CA.

The decision that a Superior Court judge erred in ruling that CannaHelp was a “primary caregiver” under Proposition 215 gave prosecutors a new opportunity to convict the defendants.

Judge Gilbert Nares explained that it is not sufficient for a person or entity to be designated a primary caregiver by an authorized medical marijuana user. There must be an independent relationship between the parties aside from and preceding the supplying of medical marijuana. “There is no evidence that CannaHelp or the defendants had such a relationship with the customers who purchased marijuana from them,” Nares wrote. A storefront dispensary that merely provides walk-in customers with medical marijuana does not provide the type of ‘consistent’ relationship necessary to achieve primary caregiver status”.
A collective, Nares explained, cannot operate for profit and cannot sell marijuana obtained from other than its own membership. And, he continued, the fact that CannaHelp operated on a cash-only basis gave detectives the probable cause to believe that CannaHelp was a criminal enterprise.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC’S TURNKEY COLLECTIVE SOLUTION
Medical Marijuana Inc.’s Turnkey Collective Solution ensures that collectives operate within the guidelines of all laws and regulations regarding the tracking of the marijuana from grow cycle to final distribution. By employing Medical Marijuana Inc.’s closed loop tracking system, it can be shown to authorities and collectives alike that the source of their supply was an active member of the collective. Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s Regulatory Module provides officials with a comprehensive reporting tool that allows them to remotely audit the industry in real time to ensure regulations are being properly followed. This audit function can be performed online and remotely from the regulators desktop anywhere in the world, making the process more efficient and cost effective for governments to monitor and regulate the industry. Medical Marijuana, Inc. believes that tools to regulate the industry and collect tax revenue are necessary to gain nationwide acceptance and legalization of medical marijuana. Further, Medical Marijuana’s Tax Remittance Platform could not only cost-effectively implement the necessary infrastructure to collect on every sale made within city limits by licensed collectives and collect those taxes on a daily basis, but eliminate the cash problem by using a tax remittance, credit, debit, or proprietary card. The POS system automatically recognizes the collective’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provides Automated Clearing House settlement of the taxes and routes the amount to the City’s appointed financial institution. Taxes can be collected on a daily basis, providing an economic windfall for the city of Oakland and any other municipality recognizing the advantages of this model.

Tax Collection
The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.

Internal Management
All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value system also eliminates the legal and practical risks of carrying cash.

Solutions
Medical Marijuana, Inc is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.

ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA, INC.
Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine, and as an effective, non-narcotic pain reliever, has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. has developed a suite of turnkey business and management solutions for the fledgling medical marijuana collective industry in California. The growing number of other states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana have yet to establish a system for the legalized commercial production and sale of the medicine. These regions are also strong potential targets for Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s products and services down the road. It is likely that other states will follow California’s basic lead as the Golden State more specifically defines the regulations and protocol that are shaping the supply-side of the legal medical marijuana sector.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medical Marijuana, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

Source and for More Info:
info@medicalmarijuanainc.com
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Official Website
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Twitter
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – MySpace
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Tax Remittance Card Flier

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The article entitled “ObamaCare’s Medical Marijuana” by Rachel Ehrenfeld, 08.13.09, 04:00 PM EDT also recognizes that

George Soros has been pushing for legalization of marijuana for the past 16 years.

MJNA intends to be one of the organizations to submit a proposal to The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) which Forbes says is venturing into the distribution and production of marijuana cigarettes. According to the Aug. 5 solicitation for proposals, the selected organizations will be controlled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and will have to comply with FDA regulations.

The articles also points out that “the government is soliciting organizations that can grow marijuana on a ‘large scale,’ with the capability to ‘prepare marijuana cigarettes and related products … distribute marijuana, marijuana cigarettes and cannabinoids, and other related products’ not only for research, but also for ‘other government programs.’”

The article states “A revenue collection system is already in place to ensure the tax revenues for the states that allow ‘medical marijuana.’ The system, developed by Medical Marijuana, Inc., boasts, ‘The Stored Value Platform System, a point-of-sale system, is a hallmark element of Medical Marijuana’s business solutions package.’ The company has already signed on many marijuana collectives, and lobbies heavily to sign on the City of Oakland, Calif., which is the first city in the nation that voted in favor of collecting tax proceeds from marijuana sale, ‘as part of the solution to Oakland’s longstanding budget shortfall.’”

MJNA also intends to introduce products and services that will diminish any negative aspects (incorrectly covered in the article) and enhance the positive aspects benefiting medical marijuana patients; however, while MJNA appreciates the recognition by Forbes, we do not endorse all of the opinions and conclusions stated in the article. To see responses to this article on a third party medical marijuana advocacy web blog, visit: http://blog.mpp.org/medical-marijuana/idiocy-at-forbes-com/08132009/

About Rachel Ehrenfeld

Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of “Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It,” and she is director of the American Center for Democracy.

ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. (Pinksheets:MJNA – News) is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine, and as an effective, non-narcotic pain reliever, has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. has developed a suite of turnkey business and management solutions for the fledgling medical marijuana collective industry in California. An expanding number of states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana have yet to establish a system for the legalized commercial production and sale of the medicine. These regions are also strong potential targets for Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s products and services down the road. It is likely that other states will follow California’s basic lead as the Golden State more specifically defines the regulations and protocol that are shaping the supply-side of the legal medical marijuana sector.

Tax Collection

The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The “Point of Sale” (POS) system will recognize the dispensary’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provide “Automated Clearing House” (ACH) settlement of the taxes to the proper financial institutions. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.

Internal Management

All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value card also eliminates the risks of carrying cash. For the investor looking to open more than one dispensary, this card allows him the ease of mind of knowing all transactions are accounted for in all of his locations.

Solutions

Medical Marijuana, Inc. is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medical Marijuana, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

INVESTOR RELATIONS
Equiti-trend Advisors LLC
800-953-3350
858-436-3350

Source and for More Info:
info@medicalmarijuanainc.com
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Official Website
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Twitter
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – MySpace
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Tax Remittance Card Flier

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This move is being done as part of Medical Marijuana’s effort to become a fully transparent corporation, one that will be attractive to a wider audience and more sophisticated investment interest. OTC BB quotation status for MJNA will also enable market markers to make their own markets in our stock –greatly enhancing MJNA shareholder liquidity.

The OTC Bulletin Board is a regulated quotation service that displays real-time quotes, last-sale prices, and volume information for over-the-counter (OTC) securities. An OTC equity security generally is any equity that is not listed or traded on NASDAQ or a national securities exchange.

Although the OTCBB does not have any listing requirements per se, to be eligible for quotation on the OTCBB, issuers must remain current in their filings with the SEC. Market Makers are not permitted to begin quotation on the OTCBB of any security whose issuer has not met this filing requirement.

Medical Marijuana, Inc will be providing further updates to its shareholders as various milestones related to the process are met.

ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC.

Medical Marijuana Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine, and as an effective, non-narcotic pain reliever, has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.

Medical Marijuana Inc. has developed a suite of turnkey business and management solutions for the fledgling medical marijuana collective industry in California. The growing number of other states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana have yet to establish a system for the legalized commercial production and sale of the medicine. These regions are also strong potential targets for Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s products and services down the road. It is likely that other states will follow California’s basic lead as the Golden State more specifically defines the regulations and protocol that are shaping the supply-side of the legal medical marijuana sector.

Tax Collection

The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The “Point of Sale” (POS) system will recognize the dispensary’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provide “Automated Clearing House” (ACH) settlement of the taxes to the proper financial institutions. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.

Internal Management

All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value card also eliminates the risks of carrying cash. For the investor looking to open more than one dispensary, this card allows him the ease of mind of knowing all transactions are accounted for in all of his locations.

Solutions

Medical Marijuana, Inc. is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medical Marijuana, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

INVESTOR RELATIONS
Equiti-trend Advisors LLC
800-953-3350
858-436-3350

Source and for More Info:
info@medicalmarijuanainc.com
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Official Website
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Twitter
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – MySpace
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Tax Remittance Card Flier

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The Stored Value Platform System, a Point-of-Sale system, is a hallmark element of Medical Marijuana’s business solutions package. This stored value-based system, once in place, helps businesses that are dispensing medical marijuana more efficiently and securely manage the tasks of revenue and taxation collection. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level. Both provider and patient benefit greatly from this revolutionary program designed by MJNA.

The addition of collectives within the top half of the Golden State is also important to Medical Marijuana, Inc. as part of its effort to persuade at least one major Bay Area municipality to join in discussions with the Company regarding its automated tax collection solutions.

Per a special July 2009 election, the City of Oakland, CA, will become the first U.S. city to tax proceeds on the sale of medical marijuana. Approximately 80 percent of voters residing within city limits chose to support the initiative, which was adopted by many of the city’s medical marijuana collectives and the Oakland City Council as part of the solution to Oakland’s longstanding budget shortfall.

By employing Medical Marijuana’s tax collection system, the City of Oakland could cost-effectively implement the necessary infrastructure to collect on every sale made within city limits by licensed collectives and collect those taxes on a daily basis. The POS system automatically recognizes the collective’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provides Automated Clearing House settlement of the taxes and routes the amount to the City’s appointed financial institution. Taxes can be collected on a daily basis, providing an economic windfall for the city of Oakland and any other municipality recognizing the advantages of this model.

Tax Collection
The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The “Point of Sale” (POS) system will recognize the dispensary’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provide “Automated Clearing House” (ACH) settlement of the taxes to the proper financial institutions. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.

Internal Management
All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value card also eliminates the risks of carrying cash. For the investor looking to open more than one dispensary, this card allows him the ease of mind of knowing all transactions are accounted for in all of his locations.

Solutions
Medical Marijuana, Inc is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.

ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA, INC.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine, and as an effective, non-narcotic pain reliever, has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. has developed a suite of turnkey business and management solutions for the fledgling medical marijuana collective industry in California. The growing number of other states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana have yet to establish a system for the legalized commercial production and sale of the medicine. These regions are also strong potential targets for Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s products and services down the road. It is likely that other states will follow California’s basic lead as the Golden State more specifically defines the regulations and protocol that are shaping the supply-side of the legal medical marijuana sector.

ABOUT 420 EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICE

420 Express Delivery Service of Sonoma County is a patient-friendly delivery service offering different strains of medical cannabis for varying medical conditions and ailments. 420 Express is focused on quality customer service, fast and friendly delivery, continuity in its staff and good rapport with its patients. You can always count on 420 Express Delivery Service to be there on time, with the specific type of medication required per your physician’s recommendation.

ABOUT MR. MEDICAL DELIVERY SERVICE

Mr. Medical Delivery Service (Mr. M.D.S.) of Marin County is a compassionate, knowledgeable and caring delivery service that provides high quality medical marijuana for it’s patients. Mr. M.D.S. strives to always deliver its medicinal products in a timely manner with only the best customer service in mind. To aid in this, the company does its best to maintain continuity and consistency with the caregivers it employs. Mr. M.D.S. also offers many different strains of cannabis in order to most effectively treat various patient conditions.

ABOUT KRYSTAL GREEN COLLECTIVE

Krystal Green Collective of Tuolomne County is a family-run business well known for its hospitality and its fast, safe and presentable delivery service. Krystal Green operates in the interest of helping out those who need a friend in their time of need. Krystal Green Collective is working hard for you the people. Krystal Green Collective – a friendly and reliable service, above and beyond all others.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medical Marijuana, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

INVESTOR RELATIONS
Equiti-trend Advisors LLC
800-953-3350
858-436-3350

Source and for More Info:
info@medicalmarijuanainc.com
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Official Website
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Twitter
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – MySpace
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Tax Remittance Card Flier

Share This:

Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding Medical Marijuana market. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine has brought marijuana to a new status, and opened the door for investment and opportunity.

Tax Collection
The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The “Point of Sale” (POS) system will recognize the dispensary’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provide “Automated Clearing House” (ACH) settlement of the taxes to the proper financial institutions. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.

Internal Management
All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value card also eliminates the risks of carrying cash. For the investor looking to open more than one dispensary, this card allows him the ease of mind of knowing all transactions are accounted for in all of his locations.

Solutions
Medical Marijuana, Inc is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.

About Better Health Group
Better Health Group is a California corporation that retails a wide variety of health related products. We believe in an organic lifestyle and Better Health Group provides alternative solutions to better health at compassionate prices. Our store caters to the community that lives a natural lifestyle.

Patients of the Prop. 215 community are welcomed into our store and can find safe access to their prescribed medication. Currently we offer in-home care to patients who qualify at no cost. In the future Better Health Group hopes to expand into a health center that offers a wide variety of activities such as yoga, Pilates, acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy and psychotherapy all for no fee to all of our collective members.

For More Info
info@medicalmarijuanainc.com
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Official Website
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Twitter
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – MySpace
Medical Marijuana, Inc. – Tax Remittance Card Flier

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One of the larger challenges facing dispensary/collective operators today is tax collection and payment. There is a constant assault on dispensaries regarding the State getting its proper tax on sales of medical marijuana.

A solution for this is now available with “Medical Marijuana, Inc” using a “Stored Value Debit Card.” The debit cards or medical revenue cards are supplied to the Medical Marijuana Dispensary (or Collective/Co-op as they are legally designated in California). The customers of the dispensary are issued the closed loop “Stored Value Card” (SVC). This ” SVC is loaded for the customer by tendering cash to the Dispensary clerk. The Dispensary clerk “loads up” the new card for the customer using the “Point of Sale” (POS) System which will also recognize the dispensary location, as well as tax rates for the appropriate government agencies.

This system will also significantly aid the dispensary/collective owner with the accounting challenges they currently face with cash transactions. This will reduce some of the major headaches they face internally as well as satisfy the all levels of government that they are in compliance.

Medical marijuana requests climb sky high.

Dispensary owners report a significant increase since Obama took office. The number of ailing people turning to medical marijuana to ease their symptoms has spiked in 2009, say dispensary owners in some of the 13 states where it’s legal.

Requests have jumped anywhere from 50 to 300 percent, they say, since President Barack Obama took office and signaled that he won’t use federal marijuana laws to override state laws as the Bush administration did. Others say the economic downturn may also be responsible as more people without insurance are seeking alternatives to costly medications.

In the past few months, marijuana co-ops, clubs, businesses and even lawyers who have advocated for looser Marijuana regulations say they’ve been inundated with requests for information and certifications that permit people to use marijuana for medical purposes.

A Secure Platform

Having a secure platform for the full service engagement of all financial services directly accessed through on integrated system, allows for a much more secure and confident transaction between customer, vendor and supplier.

The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction. Users are empowered, operators are empowered and Government Agencies are more confident in assuring their collection of taxes and fees while secure in the function of financial interactions.

Operators have the benefit of establishing deeper and more meaningful relationships with their customer base. As such, the operators’ ability to enhance their revenue generating capabilities is much greater with the full access to the suite of financial services provided by our vast networked platform. This enables full creative expansion within any sector to a retail operator of which these facilities may choose to engage.

For further details on Medical Marijuana, Inc. contact:
info@medicalmarijuaninc.com
http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com
http://www.twitter.com/medmarijuanainc
http://www.myspace.com/marijuanainc

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For further details on Medical Marijuana, Inc. contact:
info@medicalmarijuaninc.com
http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com
http://www.twitter.com/medmarijuanainc
http://www.myspace.com/marijuanainc

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