Pot for Profit?

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/we-test-eaze-apps-promise-of-pot-in-ten-minutes/Content?oid=4042737

A historic California medical marijuana regulation bill finally scored a key hearing date. Senate Bill 1262 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations committee on August 13.

Amendments continue to shape the bill faster than online records can post them, and the final sticking points seem irrelevant compared to one startling fact that's emerged: SB 1262 would, for the first time, allow the $1.8 billion medical pot industry to make profits.

Under 2008 guidelines, California's medi-pot collectives must operate as "not-for-profit" enterprises, and their operators are routinely arrested for alleged profit-making. Federal prosecutors use "profit-taking" to justify dispensary raids and prison sentences.

By contrast, the word "profit" is not mentioned once in SB 1262, and it's a deliberate omission, said Nate Bradley, for the California Cannabis Industry Association. "It's silent [on profit]."

But profit would be the default mode for state-licensed medical cannabis growers, drivers, and stores — just like it is any other licensed, state-regulated business, Bradley said. That's huge. Canna-businesses could plow profits into education campaigns, lobbying efforts, and political donations to help end dispensary bans across vast swaths of the state, amend overly restrictive state regulations, and even straight-up legalize pot in 2016.

However, there's still plenty to fix in SB 1262, Bradley added.