Signaling growing acceptance of cannabis legalization nationally, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to allow banks to provide traditional banking services to marijuana businesses that are legal under state law.

Sponsored by Reps. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the amendment to the Financial Services appropriations bill prevents the Treasury Department from spending funds to penalize financial institutions that provide services to state-legal marijuana businesses. The amendment passed with bipartisan support, 231 to 192.

• Peter Williams says he can make $1billion in three years growing the drug
• Drug baron is trying to make his business into 'McDonald's of marijuana'
• Since January 1, more than 200 dispensaries have been set up in Denver

By Tom Leonard

Published: 16:52 EST, 19 June 2014 | Updated: 03:13 EST, 20 June 2014

Peter Williams waves a hand regally over a sea of dazzling green that seems to stretch off into infinity. These are the marijuana plants — room after brightly lit room of them — that have suddenly made him a very rich man.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — The biggest threat to Uruguay's new legal marijuana market has lost his party's presidential primary.

Sen. Jorge Larranaga had been a favorite to represent the National Party this year and strongly opposes the new law, which puts the ruling Broad Front government at the center of a regulated marijuana industry. The government's aim is to defeat organized crime by producing cheaper, better, legal weed and selling it in pharmacies to registered adults.

"We are going to overturn this law that legalized marijuana growing. Nobody plant anything! Don't plant anything because we're going to knock it down!" Larranaga had said ahead of Sunday's primary.

Created on the back of activism and entertainment website The High Community, The High Supply is a UK cannabis start-up.

We aim to cut out big business by offering an extremely good value product for stoners every month for just £4.20. Proceeds reinvested in our main organisation The High Community, which promotes cannabis activist events, funds pressure groups such as Norml UK and creates awareness campaigns for drug reform.

Just read our frequently asked questions to find out what we’re doing to create change in the UK.

The recreational and medical cannabis industry is booming, and start-ups are sprouting like grass. With the legal pot market expected to grow from $2.3 billion this year to $10.2 billion by 2018, according to a study by ArcView Market Research, there’s no shortage of investors willing to gamble their capital on the chance of mountain-high marijuana returns.

Barcelona coffee shops are private by law; they are quite different from Amsterdam’s coffee shops or Denver’s dispensaries. I get several hundred emails each month from people asking questions about the coffee shops in Barcelona, and it’s obvious that there is a lot of misinformation out there.

On April 1, Uruguay's legalisation of marijuana, the very first among the world, takes effect. To prepare for the influx of demand, the small South American nation has taken its sights on Canada to fill in the gaps.

Ratified in December 2013, Uruguay legalised the growing and selling of marijuana as a source of revenue. Uruguay residents may grow six marijuana plants in their homes per year, or as much as 480 grams (about 17 ounces). Smoking clubs with 15 to 45 members can grow up to 99 plants per year.

However, cultivation processes and operations take time way beyond the four months since the bill was thumbed up by the Uruguay Senate.

The marijuana industry never had room for professional design while stuck in the criminal sector. For decades, goofy stoner iconography, such as pot-leaf decals and so much tie-dye, were the de facto brand of marijuana in the popular imagination. Product packaging was limited to cellophane baggies and the tools of commerce (head shops, guys on bicycles) operating discreetly.

THE POT INDUSTRY IS POISED TO GROW FASTER THAN THE SMARTPHONE INDUSTRY.