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CNBC: "Cannabis Gold Rush"

CNBC is airing Cannibis Gold Rush, concentrating on Colorado's medical marijuana industry.

CNBC's "Marijuana USA" goes inside a flourishing medical pot industry. In Colorado, the demon weed is rebranded as a natural herbal remedy with healing powers that even respectable citizens can enjoy. We meet two restaurant owners who are about to launch a new line of cannabis-infused edibles. And, we’ll go inside a clinic where marijuana is almost always the doctor's order.

In this bold new era of greater marijuana acceptance, the business still remains in violation of federal laws. But, the entrepreneurs have asked to be regulated, licensed and taxed – just like any other trade. After more than seventy years as an illegal drug, is it possible that marijuana’s moment has arrived?

The program then moves on to Appalachia where the war on drugs is continuing, especially in Kentucky. Finally, it goes to Portugal, and looks at Lisbon's relaxed drug laws and its subsequent drop in youth drug use.

Medical marijuana is earning a lot of revenue in sales tax. Here are the numbers for Colorado Springs. [More...]

Here are the latest numbers from Colorado:

  • 99,559 new patient applications have been received to date since the registry began operating in June 2001. One three hundred (300) applications have been denied, 68 cards have been revoked, 513 patients have died, and 3,201 cards have expired, bringing the total number of patients who currently possess valid Registry ID cards to 95,477.
  • Seventy-one percent of approved applicants are male.
  • The average age of all patients is 40. Currently twenty-four patients are minors (under the age of 18).
  • Fifty-eight percent of patients reside in the Denver-metro and area (Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas & Jefferson counties), with the remainder of patients found in counties throughout Colorado.
  • Patients on the Registry represent all the debilitating conditions covered under Amendment 20. Severe pain accounts for 94% of all reported conditions; muscle spasms account for the second-most reported condition at 24%. Note that percentages do not add up to 100 percent because some patients have more than one condition.
  • Sixty-six percent of patients have designated a primary care-giver (someone who has significant responsibility for managing the care of a patient with a debilitation medical condition).
  • More than 1,100 different physicians have signed for patients in Colorado.
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  • Display: Sort:
    "Two restaurant owners" (none / 0) (#1)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Dec 10, 2010 at 09:19:54 PM EST
    Have you been to Scott and Wanda's place, J?  Good stuff, good people...

    Patients on the Registry represent all the debilitating conditions covered under Amendment 20. Severe pain accounts for 94% of all reported conditions; muscle spasms account for the second-most reported condition at 24%. Note that percentages do not add up to 100 percent because some patients have more than one condition.

    What bugs me is all the people I hear who have the nerve to sit in judgment of the pain and suffering of others and proclaim that the majority of card holders are scamming the system just to get pot.  

    This also may be of interest... (none / 0) (#2)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Dec 10, 2010 at 09:51:43 PM EST
    ...to you, recent statement from Rep. Polis.

    As long as [marijuana] remains illegal and as long as there is a market demand, the production will be driven underground," he continued. "No matter how much we throw at enforcement, it will continue to be a threat not only to our Federal lands, but to our border security and to our safety within our country.

    The treat to our Federal lands is in reference to the cartels increasingly using remote public lands for growing operations and the effects (public safety/environmental, etc.) these activities have.  Given the vast tracts of public land we are blessed to have in Colorado (36% of all our surface area), I'm glad to see Rep. Polis bringing some sense to the debate over HR 1540.

    Parent

    I believe this is a prob in CA (none / 0) (#3)
    by nycstray on Sat Dec 11, 2010 at 01:06:29 AM EST
    the fed/state lands part.

    Parent
    I'm sure it is. (none / 0) (#4)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Sat Dec 11, 2010 at 12:17:55 PM EST
    As someone who loves getting away to the beauty, solitude and peace of the back country, I'm left wondering which is worse, armed troops patrolling the high country or the cartels-or getting caught in the cross-fire between the two.  

    Parent