Recreational Marijuana Becomes Legal in California
Starting at midnight on January 1, recreational marijuana became legal in California. Cannabis for medicinal purposes has been legal for more than two decades, but this legislation signals a change for the industry.
Alyssa Julya Smith caught up with MedMen Dispensary's CMO BJ Carretta to discuss the economic impact, and where some of the tax dollars will go from an industry poised to make $7 billion in the coming years.
MedMen is one of only three dispensaries in Los Angeles that has received a license on January 1 to sell recreational cannabis products as the city and state are slowly rolling them out.
Carretta talks about de-stigmatizing the practice of cannabis use, and how that will help grow the industry to one of the biggest in the Golden State. He also says marijuana taxes will be as high as 35%, and the state is still figuring out what will be done with the tax money made off of the sales.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
