Marijuana producers in the southern region of Brabant have an annual turnover of around €1bn, according to police and justice ministry estimates.

They say the region has between 5,500 and 8,800 plantations, producing over 340 tonnes of the plant a year, local broadcaster Omroep Brabant reports.

‘Locals don’t smoke that much, so most of it is exported,’ a police spokesman said.

The figures were revealed in a special broadcast to highlight the region’s drugs industry.

Marijuana businesses are largely boxed out of the banking industry. Most banks will not work with marijuana businesses because marijuana is illegal federally. Last year the United States Treasury Department issued ‘guidance’ on the issue in an attempt to help banks navigate through the rules. That ‘guidance’ proved to just create more confusion and chaos. The marijuana industry is massive, and growing constantly, yet it’s an all-cash industry right now (except for the lucky few that have bank accounts, which could get shutdown at any time).

As the country moves closer to legalizing marijuana, the NCAA is slowly being forced to make decisions. A new investigation done by the Associated Press took a look at how athletic departments in major universities handle marijuana cases.

The study showed that Illinois, along with a number of other Power Five universities, treats a positive test for marijuana differently than tests for other drugs.

From the AP:

Illinois has a separate pot policy that has become more strict but isn’t as punitive as its policy for drugs like cocaine or heroin.

In this Friday, Nov. 27, 2015 photograph, jars of different type of marijuana sit on counter during a sale at the Denver Kush Club in north Denver. A marijuana banking case set for arguments Monday will test the federal government's stated goal of addressing the cash-only nature of the quasi-legal pot industry. (David Zalubowski, Associated Press)

A federal judge said Monday he sympathizes with pot businesses faced with contradictory regulations, but he expressed misgivings about forcing federal officials to approve a marijuana credit union.

In Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, Syrian refugees wearing scarves over their faces work in fields of cannabis plants. Migrant workers from neighbouring Syria have done this work for many years, spending a few months a year in the region before returning home. However, since the rise of Islamic State, this has become a task that could put them, and their family back in Syria, at risk of harm including death because working with, getting close to or consuming drugs and alcohol is considered a sin in Islam. "If Islamic State back home knew we work with hashish, they would cut us" with knives, says Aisha, 15.

A woman and a 13-year-old boy sift through the twigs and buds of the recent harvest inside a garage filled with green dust and piles of cannabis.

An Oil Springs man who was caught with three marijuana plants in his yard and with dried marijuana in his home was fined $1,000 in Sarnia court.

Roger Pindus, 55, pleaded guilty on Dec. 23 to the Sept. 24 possession of marijuana.

A police raid found the plants in the yard where Pindus was arrested. In the home there was an ounce of dried marijuana and some marijuana that had not been dried.

Pindus's criminal record includes drug offences but there was a substantial gap since his last conviction, said defence lawyer Ken Marley.

There was a joint submission by Crown and defence lawyers for the $1,000 fine.

In November the United States Postal Service sent a memo to newspaper companies in the Portland, Oregon district stating that it would not deliver newspapers and other publications if the publications included advertising for the marijuana industry. Essentially USPS took the stance that since marijuana is illegal at the federal level, the promotion of those ‘illicit goods’ is illegal too, and USPS would not be participating in those promotions in any way.

A U.S. District Court judge in Denver today will hear oral arguments in a case regarding a Denver credit union that deals with the marijuana industry and its attempt to get federally recognized.

Judge R. Brook Jackson will hear oral arguments in "The Fourth Corner Credit Union v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City" beginning at 9 a.m. in the Alfred J. Arraj U.S. Courthouse in Denver.

On Dec. 22, 2015, Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department detained Nicholas Cunningham and Evonne Lidoff for misdemeanor distribution of marijuana, through Kush Gods, Cunningham’s business that exchanges cannabis for contributions.

When the District’s voters passed Initiative 71, restricted property and cultivation of cannabis ended up being legal. And while the retail sale of marijuana had not been legalized, the law made it possible for individuals to transfer up to one ounce of cannabis to another individual.

Acting Speaker Tina Muna Barnes, center, listens as fellow senator Dennis Rodriguez Jr. present testimony on Bill 185 during session at the Guam Legislature on Tuesday, Nov. 17.(Photo: PDN file)

As the island waits for the implementation of medical marijuana the federal government has signaled it won’t pursue legal action where there are local laws in place.

The U.S. Congress passed a federal spending bill which included a provision that prohibits the Department of Justice from taking legal action against states and territories where medical marijuana is legal.

Sec. 542 of the federal spending bill prohibits the Department of Justice from using funds to prevent states and territories with medical marijuana laws from implementing them.