Weedmaps, the online directory of cannabis-store menus and locations that\u2019s served alternately as a \u201clittle black book\u201d for licensed weed stores and a Craigslist for off-books and illicit marijuana sales, has been subpoenaed to provide information to the federal government. <\/p>\n
Founded in 2008, Weedmaps quickly became the leading online resource for curious cannabis buyers and weed merchants eager to sell them cannabis. Until changes to its policy, which began with new advertisers in August 2019, Weedmaps allowed almost anyone to publish on its website contact information and a menu of cannabis products \u2014 including, much to the chagrin of California state cannabis regulators and struggling legal businesses playing by the rules \u2014 unlicensed marijuana merchants<\/a>, both delivery services and storefronts.<\/p>\n As MarketWatch first reported on Monday<\/a>, Weedmaps\u2019s parent company, Ghost Management Group, was issued a grand jury subpoena on Sept. 19 of last year for \u201cdocuments related to cannabis businesses listed\u201d on the website as well as records related to cannabis orders, on top of records related to Weedmaps\u2019s own business dealings, including its investors and staff.<\/p>\n The subpoena also sought information related to at least 30 The company was given until Oct. 31 to comply and no indictments or prosecutions have resulted.<\/p>\n Under both the Obama and Trump administrations, the federal Justice Department has steered clear of prosecuting state-legal cannabis activity despite its violation of federal law, but with one caveat: Any cannabis activity that also violated state law would be a priority for prosecution.<\/p>\n \u201cWeedmaps\u2019s goose is cooked,\u201d said Omar Figueroa, a Sonoma Weedmaps did not comment on the subpoena nor provide a copy to Cannabis Now. <\/p>\n Founded in 2008, the company was raking in as much as $30 million a year in revenue by 2014<\/a> \u2014 cash flow that helped Weedmaps\u2019s parent group donate $750,000 towards Proposition 64<\/a>, California\u2019s recreational legalization initiative, in 2016. <\/p>\n The company sometimes painted its actions with unlicensed companies as activism meant to provide access to cannabis patients and customers living in jurisdictions that chose not to permit legal weed businesses. But that likely does not matter to the feds.<\/p>\n Technology companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t protect content providers,\u201d added Figueroa, who argued that as soon as Weedmaps starting verifying listings and products, it lost such protections. <\/p>\n In response to Figeroa\u2019s statements Travis Rexrod, WeedMaps communications director, clarified that Weedmaps does not verify products.<\/p>\n \u201cWeedmaps does not verify products, it provides the opportunity for brands to do so directly so this statement from Figeroa is bunk,\u201d Rexrod wrote.<\/p>\n As Marijuana Business Daily reported<\/a>, even after Weedmaps self-policed and removed advertisers who lacked state-issued license numbers from its website, the company still allowed paid advertisers to \u201cself-publish,\u201d allowing for as many as 1,700 underground cannabis merchants to peddle their (untested) wares on the site. Rexrod stated this number is incorrect.<\/p>\n \u201cWe assume that this stat was originally produced by using a scraper or comparing the sitemap to the number of available state licenses in California,\u201d he said via email. \u201cLike most modern sites, we work with the top anti-scraping software providers in the industry and they intentionally throw up garbage data to combat this. We consider our client data, including the number of listings, to be proprietary.\u201d <\/p>\n In the years since legalization, the illicit market has far outpaced the legal, regulated, and heavily taxed (and therefore extremely expensive) market. By some estimates, the illegal market is eight times bigger than the legal market in California \u2014 and in some jurisdictions, legal sales have actually declined in recent months.<\/p>\n Exactly what triggered the Eastern District of California\u2019s interest in Weedmaps remains unclear. The district is vast and runs from the Oregon border to Sacramento and south to Fresno. The timing of the subpoena, issued Sep. 19, coincides with the height of the vape-cart health scare when illicit cartridges likely contaminated with additives sickened and killed vape-users across the country, attorneys and insiders noted. <\/p>\n But for now, \u201cwe really don\u2019t It\u2019s very hard to run around prosecuting someone slinging Is this what the feds plan to do? Is Donald Trump busting We don\u2019t know, but we do know that if they were, last fall\u2019s TELL US,\u00a0<\/strong>have you used Weedmaps?<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: This post as been significantly altered from its original draft to correct discrepancies. <\/em><\/p>\n The post Feds Request Records From Weedmaps<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Weedmaps, the online directory of cannabis-store menus and locations that\u2019s served alternately as a \u201clittle black book\u201d for licensed weed stores and a Craigslist for off-books and illicit marijuana sales, has been subpoenaed to provide information to the federal government. Founded in 2008, Weedmaps quickly became the leading online resourceContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,90,387],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41538,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41537\/revisions\/41538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ncannabis brands operating in California, including Cannacraft, which markets
\nvape-cart cartridges under the AbsoluteXtracts and Care By Design Brands, and
\npublicly-traded Terra Tech, according to attorney Matt Kumin, who reviewed the
\nsubpoena.<\/p>\n
\nCounty, California-based defense attorney and author of an annual handbook
\noutlining state cannabis laws. \u201cThe only reason why they\u2019re allowed to exist
\nnow is to be a honeypot for the feds and California law enforcement to pick off
\nunlicensed operators.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nwhose platforms are used for illegal conduct seek immunity for prosecution for
\nthat conduct under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states
\nin part that companies can\u2019t be held liable for how users abuse the platform. <\/p>\n
\nknow why these companies were targeted,\u201d Kumin said. <\/p>\n
\ndime bags, but it\u2019s not very hard at all to find a central repository of
\nillegal listings and accuse the repository-holder of aiding and abetting
\ncriminal activity. <\/p>\n
\nWeedmaps \u2014 and, along with it, anyone who used the website to move a few packs
\nhere, a few boxes there off the books? <\/p>\n
\nsubpoena is a logical first step. But even if it wasn\u2019t, trust still matters in
\ncannabis and the damage to Weedmaps\u2019s brand could take a long time to repair in
\nsome circles.<\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Feds Request Records From Weedmaps<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"