This week it was revealed there is a support for a cross-party Federal Bill that could see medical cannabis legally grown and prescribed to patients as early as next year.

So far, so good.

But I fear the devil may be lurking in the detail and that the move might have missed some parts that matter.

Importantly, because they have been so slow and apply to only a small group, the positive changes will make little immediate difference to most who are currently accessing medical cannabis illegally.

Maine is poised to be a leader in the recreational marijuana business because of its success with medical cannabis, the head of the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensary group said Wednesday.

Patricia Rosi, CEO of the Wellness Connection of Maine, said the state could benefit financially by allowing recreational marijuana sales and joining the country’s fastest growing industry, with an economic impact of $11.1 billion this year.

Rosi spoke about medical cannabis and marijuana legalization during the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce’s monthly Eggs & Issues event.

Don Robinson says he is bringing the “best of big business practice” to just about the last place investors would think to look for it: the marijuana sector.

“We’re a marriage of industry experts who don’t have corporate experience with corporate grey-hair adult supervision,” he said of his new company Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. “That marriage is really critical.”

Robinson, 61, has been in the food business for more than 30 years, most recently as chief executive of Toronto-based Cara Operations Ltd. Now he is running Golden Leaf, which began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange on Wednesday. With revenues of more than US$1 million a month and growing, its sales already dwarf nearly all the licensed medical marijuana producers in Canada.

About 1,000 people interested in becoming marijuana growers, processors or retailers packed into Salem's Armory Auditorium on Wednesday for two workshops about the rules governing the cannabis industry.

There were presentations from state agencies, advocacy groups and Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, on energy use, agricultural regulations, water rights, food safety, conflict resolution and more.

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman wants Portland to start raking in money from pot-smoking tourists. Now that recreational marijuana is legal, he’s pushing for a Green Light district.

The commissioner introduced his plan during a city council meeting on Wednesday.

City regulations currently require marijuana dispensaries to be separated by at least 1,000 feet. Saltzman wants to waive that restriction in the downtown and Lloyd District area.

The Endocannabinoid System:

Endocanabinoids and their receptors are found throughout the body in the brain, organs, connective tissue, glands and immune cells. In each tissue, the cannabinoid system performs different tasks, but the goal is always the same—homeostasis (maintain stable internal environment regardless of fluctuations in the external environment).

Let's face it, there have been lots of mistakes in the medical marijuana industry over the past 20 years. And I mean lots of mistakes, beginning way back in 1996 when California passed Proposition 215.

That was the first attempt of a state to legalize medical marijuana, and the result has been pretty messy. Sure, marijuana became available. But there hasn't been much oversight or control. And for a long time, California has been the wild west of the medical marijuana movement.

The marijuana industry may be booming in Colorado, but pot entrepreneurs face a very big problem: pesticides.

Two marijuana users, including a cancer patient, filed a lawsuit last week against a pot business that they claimed used an unhealthy pesticide to grow its weed. The pesticide in question is Eagle 20 EW, a fungicide often used on grapes and hops.

The chemicals, used to stave off mites, mildew and other pests, could also be harmful to humans when used on a product that is later burned for inhalation. Eagle 20, in particular, contains a chemical called myclobutanil that produces toxic hydrogen cyanide gas when burned.