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Medical marijuana has been a recent hot topic in many southwest Michigan communities. And it’s about to become big business here, too.

Two proposed ventures for Buchanan could bring investments of $500,000 to $1 million to the small town.

And even larger, multimillion-dollar commercial cannabis operations in this blossoming industry recently decriminalized by the state of Michigan are being proposed for Galien Township.

For this rural community, it could amount to an economic shot in the arm — in property tax payments and jobs alone — if MedFarm of Michigan opens its midsized grow operation and processing plant here.

The lucrative nature of marijuana sales was at the center of a House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development discussion today about a law that puts the state into the marijuana distribution business.

Louisiana State University and Southern University are the two schools that plan to grow marijuana at separate facilities for use as medical treatments authorized under legislation approved last spring that legalizes and regulates such distribution. LSU’s operation alone is estimated to cost between $10 million and $15 million, and lawmakers were warned it will take seven to eight years for the operation to become lucrative.

Across Canada, specialty medical clinics are making money within the government's legal medical marijuana regime by acting as middlemen between doctors, patients and licensed marijuana producers.

The clinics are in the business of taking referrals from doctors and arranging consultations with physicians who assess potential patients and write prescriptions for those who qualify. Clinic staff then educate those patients on how to use medical marijuana, and register them with the licensed medical marijuana producers who will ultimately provide the patients with legal cannabis by mail.

Some of the clinics also receive money from those licensed producers, raising questions about medical ethics and transparency.

The cannabis workers protection bill is moving swiftly through the California Assembly.

At a hearing today, members of the Business and Professions Committee voted to move the bill forward after brief testimony from its sponsor, the UFCW Western States Council. The Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment will hear the bill next.

Federal government plans to legalize recreational adult marijuana means multi-millions in investments and hundreds of jobs for Saugeen Shores area residents according to John Fowler, founder and CEO of Supreme Pharmaceutical/7ACRES, a licensed medical marijuana cultivation operation in Tiverton. 

Fowler briefed Saugeen Shores councillors on the current growth spurt at his facility at the April 24 town committee of the whole meeting in Port Elgin.

Fowler was introduced by Port Elgin BIA (Business Improvement Area) chair Jeff Carver who announced 7ACRES as a title sponsor of this year's BIA Farm to Table dinner, with a $2,500 donation and a booth at the weekly Farmer's Market.

“We cannot overprice and overtax the legalization of marijuana, we can’t, we don’t want the black market to continue to dictate the flow of this substance,” said Hampden County Sheriff Nicholas Cocchi at the final State House hearing before lawmakers deliver their rewrite of the marijuana legalization law.

But Monday’s testimony underscored the fact that it’s a delicate balancing act between overtaxing and undertaxing.

Cocchi and other sheriffs told the legislators they want five percent of the pot revenue earmarked for a marijuana addiction treatment fund, and noted that a large percentage of their inmates are drug addicts in need of treatment.

They sit for hours at a time, hunched over tables with scissors in one hand and marijuana in the other. The work is tedious, but it pays well — for now. This once mostly black market trade is slowly becoming more regulated, hindering the flow of quick under-the-table cash.

Hours meld, the sound of snipping and sticky scissors clinking when they are dipped in jars of alcohol as the workers groom the weed.

The time has come for British Columbia to take the lead on the marijuana legalization process — according to one medical marijuana producer.

The long-awaited federal marijuana legalization bill being unveiled today, 

The legalization bill will consider how marijuana will be taxed, regulated and sold safely, but many critics say it will still leave a lot of details to the provinces — especially on how these policies will be enacted.

For some, the bill is a huge entrepreneurial opportunity.

The Ohio Department of Commerce announced Friday that medical marijuana growers can start applying for Ohio licenses as early as June.

The application and the license both come at a hefty price — but a Boardman native believes it’s a business venture worth exploring.

Brian Kessler lives in Los Angeles, but is from Boardman.

His company, SBL Venture Capital, invests in marijuana and has been advocating to bring medical marijuana to Ohio for years.

“I’m very excited,” Kessler said. “The fact is that we’re now moving down the path. They chose the process where they’re looking for 12 small growers and 12 large growers.”

Kessler said the medical marijuana market is extremely competitive.

He wants Youngstown to have a stake in the business.