Fortune flows: UK comedy"Saving Grace", Uruguay 1st pot trade, Canada solid, Colorado profits, Mexican pot farmers quit planting

Colorado lawmakers unsure how to spend marijuana tax revenue

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"Saving Grace":
In this Sundance Audience Award-winning comedy from director Nigel Cole, newly widowed Grace (Brenda Blethyn) finds herself in financial ruin when she discovers that her dearly departed husband has left her deep in debt. With the help of her gardener, Matt (Craig Ferguson), Grace applies her green thumb to ganja plants -- and soon, everyone in her small English town is getting high on more than life.

Critical reaction to the film was generally positive and it received favorable notice for an independent British comedy film, eventually grossing $24,325,600 worldwide, following its theatrical release in the United States.

[2013] Reuters: Uruguay becomes first country to legalize marijuana trade
Other countries have decriminalized marijuana possession and the Netherlands allows its sale in coffee shops, but Uruguay will be the first nation to legalize the whole chain from growing the plant to buying and selling its leaves.
Several countries such as Canada, the Netherlands and Israel have legal programs for growing medical cannabis but do not allow cultivation of marijuana for recreational use.
Last year, the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington passed ballot initiatives that legalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana.

[2014] CNN: Uruguay To Legalize Marijuana, Sales To Start At 1 Dollar Per Gram
Uruguay has published regulations for a new, legal marijuana market, a measure approved by lawmakers there in December. The law and the new regulations make Uruguay the first country in the world to have a system regulating legal production, sale and consumption of the drug. The proposed price starts at 20 Uruguayan pesos per gram (about 87 cents in U.S. dollars)

Canada vending machines pop out marijuana - The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes was effectively legalized in Canada in 1999

America’s Pot Farmers Are Putting Mexican Cartels Out of Business
For the first time in generations, farmers in central Mexico have stopped planting marijuana. Due to ample supplies up north, courtesy of medical and recreational cannabis legalization, cartel farmers can’t make any money off pot anymore, they told the Washington Post this week. The price for a pound of Mexican marijuana has plummeted 75 percent from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.

Washington Times - Obama: Pot no more dangerous than alcohol: “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Mr. Obama said in a lengthy interview with The New Yorker. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.

Reuters - Colorado, the first state to tax legalized recreational marijuana sales, expects to bring in an estimated $98 million in revenue this year, exceeding the state's original expectations by 40 percent.

The state began levying sales and excise taxes on recreational marijuana on January 1, 2014. Moody's Investors Service, in a report released Friday, said legal sales in Colorado will reduce the size of the black market and revenue from legal sales will mean more tax payments flowing into state coffers.

The only other state to legalize recreational marijuana, Washington, will begin marijuana sales in June.

over $25 million in revenue
DENVER, May 9 (UPI) -- Marijuana has already generated Colorado over $25 million in revenue between taxes, licenses, and fees since its legalization.

Colorado pot sales increased again in March, marijuana sales tax revenue at $12M+
DENVER - Colorado's recreational pot sales jumped nearly a third in March. That's according to sales tax reports issued by the state Thursday.

The state Department of Revenue says that Colorado sold nearly $19 million worth of recreational pot in March, up from about $14 million worth of recreational pot in February.

Through three months of retail recreational pot, Colorado has earned $7.3 million in taxes from the drug. That figure does not include medical marijuana sales taxes or licensing fees, which bring Colorado's haul to about $12.6 million.

The only other state to legalize recreational marijuana, Washington, will begin marijuana sales in June.

*update* 08 July, 2014 -
TIME: Washington joins Colorado on America’s weed frontier - America's second recreational weed market is open for business As with alcohol, only those 21 and older can purchase recreational weed. Out of state residents are allowed to purchase pot, but it must be consumed in Washington. Marijuana remains illegal in neighboring states. And plan on paying with cash. While some legal establishments may be able to take debit cards, none can accept credit cards because of federal banking regulations.

*update* 17 August, 2014 -
5 States - Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine (and city of Washington D.C.) - Ready to Legalize Marijuana It's an interesting time to stand on the sidelines and watch marijuana legalization efforts take over the country. Colorado and Washington both jumped the gun and passed initiatives to decriminalize and legalize cannabis by popular vote in 2012, and since then have both opened the first legal marijuana markets in the U.S. Legal retail sales began this year, and so far things have settled into place, and the novelty has started to wear off to some degree. Now Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine (and city of Washington D.C.) are following Washington and Colorado's path.

*update* 05 Nov. 2014 -
TIME rounds up the 2014 marijuana midterms votes

Voters in Oregon on Tuesday chose to follow Colorado and Washington state in passing a ballot measure that will create the country’s third legal market for recreational marijuana.

A similar proposal in Alaska passed early Wednesday morning, making it the fourth state to legalize retail pot.

Legalization advocates also won a victory in Washington, D.C. With nearly 70% of the vote in favor, residents in the nation’s capital adopted what some industry experts call a “soft legalization” measure.

Guam became the first U.S. territory to legalize medical marijuana, joining the District of Columbia and 23 states. But legalization advocates lost a their battle for a similar proposal in Florida.

South Portland, Maine, legalized marijuana in a somewhat symbolic vote, while voters in Lewiston, Maine, shot down a similar proposal. The measure makes it legal for residents to possess up to 1 oz. of marijuana, though consuming or displaying weed in public remains illegal. More important, the drug remains illegal on a state and federal level, and the measure did not address taxation or regulation of a legalized market. Portland, Maine’s largest city, passed a similar measure in 2013.

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Who is the next to catch the fortune flow and balance the state budget sheet?

Photos courtesy valuewalk.com, usrepresented.com, AP, Vancouver Sun, and Wikipedia / IMDB