Kind Clinics Opens Hartford office in partners with Medbox, Inc. and Opens First MMJ Consulting office in Connecticut

On June 1st, Connecticut’s Governor Dannel P. Malloy passed laws legalizing the use of medical marijuana. Now a little less than a month later, an experienced dispensary consulting firm, Kind Clinics LLC, which provides support services and patented technology for dispensing and cultivating medical marijuana, has opened a business office in downtown Hartford, therefore becoming is the first to publicly enter the Connecticut MMJ market.

Although medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2000, cities were given the option to opt-out of zoning for medical marijuana dispensaries and businesses. While some cities are still holding out on the patients in need, Commerce City is reinstating the allowance of medical marijuana businesses. On Monday night, a regulatory structure was approved which all businesses must be licensed to operate under.

For years and years we hear the poor arguments that marijuana is the gateway drug. While that is a myth that has been proven wrong a million times over, especially in favor of alcohol abuse (after all, how many people do you know had their first joint before their first beer!?), for what is perhaps the first time, we have statistics showing that as of 2010, prescription pills have been the number one gateway drug. 

"For as long as the Department of Justice has tracked drug abuse, marijuana was the first-time users' drug of choice," Marshall County Alabama County District Attorney and district judge-elect Mitch Floyd stated. "But in 2010, prescription pills overtook marijuana."

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee joins 14 other states by signing into law a bill that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana. The law, which becomes effective on April 1, 2013, states that possession of an ounce or less will become nothing more than a civil violation with a $150 fine. It does state that 3 such violations within a period of 18 months would be a misdemeanor.

Current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as President Barack Obama's first White House chief of staff, said Friday that he would back a proposal that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. He becomes the latest in a string of politicians, including New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo, Rhode Island's Governor Lincoln Chafee, Texas congressional candidate Beto O'Rourke (who just beat eight-term incumbent Silvestre Reyes heavily on the marijuana legalization platform), Ronald Reagan's former speechwriter and current Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and New York Supreme Court Justice Gustin L. Reichbach, that have recently come out in support of smaller penalties for marijuana use.

Despite several signs that the nation is finally wizening up on medical marijuana, the trigger happy federal government seems to be stuck in the propaganda era of 'Reefer Madness' as they continue to crackdown on medical marijuana caregivers. In the latest round of scare tactics and waste of tax payer dollars, six Southern California medical marijuana dispensary operators were arrested by federal authorities on Thursday.