Virginia Tech is gearing up for research that could help establish an industrial hemp growing industry in the commonwealth under a new state law.

On Monday Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed into a law a bill sponsored by Del. Joseph Yost, R-Pearisburg, and for years championed by Montgomery County politician, farmer and businessman Jim Politis that will allow limited hemp cultivation through a permitting system — so long as it is affiliated with a university research program.

Tech released information on its next steps in a news release on Wednesday.

After only 3½ months of operation, Leamington’s Aphria Inc. is spending $1 million to expand its medical marijuana production.

The investment is part of a two-phase expansion plan for the business that just began operations in December. Startup costs were $6 million.

The phase one investment will increase the current growing capacity of 1,200 to 1,500 kilograms of marijuana to 2,500 kg annually.

But Aphria CEO Vic Neufeld said that’s still not enough to keep up with the growing demand.

“It’s not enough for us to service this business opportunity,” Neufeld said Wednesday of wholesale demand that has developed in the last two months.

Rob Rusher: GrowBuddy

What a man like Rob Rusher, founder of GrowBuddy, is doing is that he’s revolutionizing something that has been in practice for decades upon decades. He is an expert in the field of user experience and making it so that software is a tool that increases efficiency and expands the boundaries of what’s possible. This is his expertise and this is what Rob has brought to growers and cultivators in the legal cannabis industry – A new way to journal and document growth. He’s passionate, inspiring, and we loved seeing just how he plans to shake everything up a bit!

What was the deciding factor for you to join this particular industry?

WASHINGTON—Ann Lee, a Republican precinct chairman in southwest Houston, had her first marijuana epiphany around her 60th birthday.

A workplace fall paralyzed her son Richard from the waist down. When he began to use marijuana to treat his pain, she decided her lifelong opposition to the drug was wrong.

Her second epiphany came after her 80th birthday. NORML, the marijuana advocacy group, invited her to be part of a five-person panel discussion at a conference in 2012. “As we all talked,” she says, “we realized that three of us were Republicans!”

For any business to survive in the harsh commercial environment it is very important to know how to manage its customer relationships. It has become a necessity for each and every business to implement various solutions for proper customer relationship handling.

Customer relationship management (also known as CRM) represents more than a simple application. It is mostly used for understanding the way customers think and for adapting to their needs and demands in order to put more emphasis on the business – customer interaction. Any first class CRM relies heavily on the use of technology. There are several industries that based themselves on customer relationship over the years, such as pharmaceutical and health care industry, financial industry or even accounting industry.

The same technology that allows you to store a mix drink in powdered form, works for THC as well. “Powdered alcohol,” as it's called, was first patented in 1972 but didn’t gain approval by the FDA until March 10, 2014.

“Palcohol” takes advantage of a clever class of chemicals known as cyclodextrins. These cyclic structures of sugar molecules are known to absorb other compounds into the center of their rings. Like the Kirby of pharmacology, cyclodextrins absorb other molecules and adopt their power. A cyclodextrin can absorb up to 60% of its weight in alcohol; it maintains itself as a powder but if you dissolve it in water the alcohol gets released making an alcoholic drink.

GREENFIELD -- When Patriot Care Corp. opens its medical marijuana dispensary in Greenfield later this year, state-of-the-art security protocols will be in place, company officials said last week.

CEO Robert Mayerson and Chief Security Advisor George Agganis were among Patriot Care officials presenting plans to the town's Zoning Board on March 12. On that date, the board unanimously granted Patriot Care a special permit to open its $2.3 million dispensary at the former American Legion building near Wells Street downtown.

Patriot Care, with a business address at 139 Stow Road in Harvard, plans dispensaries in Greenfield, Boston and Lowell, as well as a growing facility in Lowell. The company already operates medical marijuana programs in Arizona and Washington, D.C.

In 1941, Henry Ford partnered with famous scientist and botanist George Washington Carver to “grow an automobile from the soil,” with a body made and powered by cannabis hemp. The result was a car that was stronger, 25 percent lighter, cheaper to manufacture and considerably greener than any modern electric car available today — all thanks to cannabis hemp.

Today Bruce Dietzen, President of Renew Sports Cars, is picking up where Ford left off. This time around, the result is a bit sexier and has the potential to set a new trend in green automobile manufacturing by becoming the only sports car available with a body made from carbon negative hemp.