LOS ANGELES, March 10, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cannabis Medical Solutions Inc. (OTCBB:CMSI), a leading company specializing in both brick-and-mortar and online merchant payment solutions, insurance and accounting services for medical marijuana dispensaries and high-risk merchant accounts and services, today announced record sales for the month of March in new merchant services contracts. Through its alliance banking network, CMSI has exceeded $500,000 in gross processing business for new merchant accounts signed in March 2010. The Company added three new medical marijuana dispensaries as merchant clients this week alone, on the heels of yesterday's USA Today article covering the legalization of medical marijuana.
The USA Today article entitled "Slowly, states are lessening limits on marijuana" by William M. Welchand and Donna Leinwand, discussed the present state of affairs of legalization and use of medical marijuana within 14 states. Specifically, the article notes James Gray, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who spent two decades as a superior court judge in Orange County, Calif., and once ran for Congress as a Republican -- who switched sides in the war on drugs, becoming an advocate for legalizing marijuana.
Gray is part of a growing national movement to rethink pot laws. From California, where lawmakers may outright legalize marijuana, to New Jersey, which implemented a medical use law Jan. 19, states are taking unprecedented steps to loosen marijuana restrictions. Advocates of legalizing marijuana say generational, political and cultural shifts have taken the USA to a unique moment in its history of drug prohibition that could topple 40 years of tough restrictions on both medicinal and recreational marijuana use.
Further, USA Today quoted Gallup Poll last October found 44% favor making marijuana legal, an eight-point jump since the question was asked in 2005. An ABC News-Washington Post poll in January found 81% favor making marijuana legal for medical use.
Attorney General Eric Holder last fall announced that raiding medical marijuana facilities would be the lowest priority for U.S. law enforcement agents -- a major shift that is spurring many states to re-examine their policies. The American Medical Association recommended in November that Congress reclassify marijuana as a drug with possible medicinal benefit.
At least 14 states this year -- some deeply conservative and Republican-leaning, such as Kansas -- will consider legalizing pot for medical purposes or lessening the penalties for possessing small amounts for personal use. Fourteen other states and the District of Columbia already have liberalized their marijuana laws.
The Obama administration still opposes smoking marijuana for its medicinal benefit, says Tom McLellan, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He says more research is needed to deliver the medically useful ingredients in a non-smokable form.
• Alabama, Delaware, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, are debating allowing medicinal use of marijuana for people with certain illnesses;
• Hawaii and Rhode Island are considering bills to reduce the penalties for marijuana possession to fines rather than jail time;
• Vermont is weighing whether to allow state-licensed liquor stores to sell medical marijuana.
California became the first state to allow marijuana for medical use when voters approved a statewide ballot issue in 1996, and its provisions are so broad that tens of thousands of people have obtained a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana for ailments from cancer to arthritis.
Now California's Legislature is considering a bill that would make it the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use as well. It is unlikely to pass this year, but Gray and other advocates hope to have a proposition on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana use for anyone 21 or older. California would levy taxes that the state tax board says could raise $1.3 billion or more a year for the deficit-plagued state, while saving tens of millions in prison and law-enforcement costs. Sponsors of the ballot issue have turned in 690,161 signatures on petitions for verification, far more than the 433,971 valid signatures required to get on the ballot.
A 2009 statewide Field Poll found 56% support making pot legal for recreational use and taxing it. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat from San Francisco who introduced the tax and regulate bill, predicts California eventually will legalize marijuana and other states will follow. "It's inevitable that there will be some kind of legalization of recreational marijuana," Ammiano says. "How and where it's going to happen I think is an open question, but I think a lot sooner than later." Source: USA Today.
The full article may be found at the following link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-08-marijuana_N.htm?csp=hf
"Our ultimate goal is to bring present banking legislation and accessibility to alternative payment options rather than cash only transactions in line with present legislation for legalization of medical marijuana," stated founder Michael Friedman. Presently, many dispensary owners and patients are not utilizing credit cards or alternative payment solutions properly, and are being shut down for improper coding of the account, with funds being held indefinitely. Our banking institutions understand this business, and our merchant accounts are set up properly from the beginning as to prevent closure of the accounts, and allow several payment options to the dispensary owners as well as patients," further stated Friedman, founder of Cannabis Medical Solutions.
About Cannabis Medical Solutions Inc.
Cannabis Medical Solutions Inc. (http://www.cannabismedsolutions.com/) has quickly become the most recognized brand and partner in both online and wireless niche merchant payment solutions. The Company offers a full spectrum of secure and reliable transaction processing solutions using traditional, Internet Point-of-Sale (POS), e-commerce and mobile (wireless) terminals in conjunction with Industry Alliance Partners. The Company has recently focused on providing payment solutions to the licensed medical marijuana dispensaries throughout 14 states. In an effort to keep these businesses within the guidelines of CA Proposition 215 and SB 420, Cannabis Medical Solutions offers reliable merchant payment solutions and closed loop pre-paid stored value and loyalty cards as a unique cash alternative to these regulated dispensaries for both operators and members of collectives. CMSI will seek to capitalize on this presently untapped and much needed solution, and presently provides services to multiple locations throughout California, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana.
FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Cannabis Medical Solutions Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.