legal marijuana

{RunTime 1:29}Pasco City Council wants to hear from the public regarding allowing Pot sales downtown.In June, Entrepreneur David Morgan asked the council…

It was designed as an innovative way to promote COVID-19 vaccinations, but Washington’s new “joints for jabs” program is off to a rough start. Officials announced Monday that the state’s nearly 500 licensed marijuana retailers could begin hosting vaccine clinics and offering a single, free pre-rolled marijuana cigarette to any 21-plus adult who received a shot there.

The state Liquor and Cannabis Board is calling the effort the “Joints for Jabs” program. The board says licensed adult-use marijuana retail shops can give away a single pre-rolled joint to anyone over 21 who gets a shot at an on-site vaccine clinic held by July 12.

Amazon will no longer test most job applicants for marijuana use in the latest sign of America's changing relationship with pot. Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the U.S., also says it now backs legalizing marijuana nationwide.

In a converted 107-year-old former bank building in Centralia’s quaint downtown, Praxis Laboratory tested pot from growers across the state. Small samples of marijuana flowers would arrive in baggies. Maybe 4 grams or so from every few square feet of leafy canopy.

This year marks a milestone for the state’s legal pot industry. For the first time since voters approved recreational pot use nine years ago, the state of Washington is expected to collect more than $1 billion in marijuana sales taxes and fees over the course of its next two-year budget cycle.

As legal weed becomes a reality in every corner of the U.S., Idaho is putting up a fight. State lawmakers on Friday moved forward with a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar the legalization of marijuana in Idaho in an attempt to keep the growing nationwide acceptance of the drug from seeping across its borders.

The legislation removes cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances and expunges low-level convictions and arrests. But the GOP Senate is not expected to take up the bill.

Several states approve marijuana for recreational and medicinal use. Oregon votes to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs.

More than 20 states designated marijuana businesses essential during the coronavirus shutdown. Cannabis activists say it's a remarkable development, given that it remains illegal under federal law.