When you go to a restaurant, do you order a cola?

No, chances are, you ask for a Coke or a Pepsi. That's the power of successful branding: the generic name of the product gets lost in the marketplace.

Now imagine ordering marijuana. Does a brand come to mind? Probably not.

But that could change, as a result of the Liberal government's proposed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana.

The question is: how will it change?

By now, you don't have to be a smoker to know that April 20 is considered by many to be a sort of national holiday for cannabis culture. Some have suggested that the date comes from "420" being a code among police officers for "marijuana-smoking in progress," while others say that there's a connection to 4/20 being Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's birthday.

Legalization: 
The majority of Americans (57%) support legalization, and support is highest among men (61%), particularly younger men (79%), and Millennials overall (68%). Among current users in states where marijuana is not currently legal, 37% say they are likely to consume more marijuana after it’s legalized.

Only 16% of Americans believe Marijuana is “very harmful”, which is lower than alcohol (27%), processed sugar (23%) and saturated fat (33%). A majority (51%) believes consumption can be beneficial, while only 32% believe that regular users are less successful in life. However, 25% report having a close friend or family member whose life was negatively affected by marijuana.

While Congress has largely refused to roll back, or even debate, the federal prohibition on pot, local voters across the U.S. have cast ballots to end the war on marijuana. But the nation's patchwork of pot laws can be confusing – even in the states where it's allowed – so here's a blueprint of what you can and can't do in the eight states (plus D.C.) where weed's been legalized for recreational use.

Canabo Continues to Increase Market Share

Since inception, Canabo Medical Inc. (CMM.V: TSX Venture) (CAMDF) has seen significant demand for its services and continues to open new clinics across Canada. Today, the company announced the opening of its 16th clinic in Kelowna, British Columbia, and this facility will be led by Dr. Chemanthi Kalen.

In December, Canabo entered a strategic partnership with Peak Medical Group, which operates partner clinics for Canabo throughout Alberta. Canabo announced that Peak recently opened its second location in Edmonton to accommodate for increasing patient demand.

A majority of Americans think marijuana use is socially acceptable, a new Yahoo News/Marist Poll, “Weed & the American Family,” finds.

According to the survey of 1,122 adults conducted March 1-7, 56 percent of Americans find pot use to be socially acceptable, including 83 percent of marijuana users and 74 percent of those who have tried marijuana.

Yet when it comes to their own consumption, 31 percent of pot users prefer using marijuana alone. Forty-one percent get high with friends or other people outside their families.

Conservative leadership candidates are split over marijuana policy, with Kevin O’Leary the only serious contender voicing support for legalization and Maxime Bernier refusing to say whether he’ll vote in favour of the Liberal legislation to lift the prohibition on the recreational use of cannabis.

Mr. O’Leary said up to 30 per cent of the population uses the drug medicinally and recreationally, and he believes the Conservative party membership understands it has to embrace “a much larger constituency.”

Capitol Hill is about to get a bit hazy.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans will be given the opportunity to bake out a “Joint Session” of Congress on Thursday, as Americans across the nation celebrate the unofficial weed-smoking holiday known as 4/20.

Members of DCMJ, a pro-cannabis activist group, plan to camp out near Capitol Hill to puff-puff-pass out at least 1,000 free marijuana joints to members of Congress, congressional staffers, interns and credentialed members of the press. The group offers to give out two joints per person, as long as the tokers are older than 21.

Can a 58-year-old former insurance executive build the first national marijuana brand? With these gummies, she just might.

Nancy Whiteman still mourns those candied, spice-dusted almonds. "They were so good. They were so stinking good," she sighs longingly. And so stinking hard to make--legally.

Because Whiteman, the unlikely co-founder and co-owner of the most successful specialized candy business in Colorado, didn't stop with the curry powder and sugar and salt. She also dredged those almonds through syrup infused with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The CEO of Hill and Gertner Capital first got involved in the marijuana industry in 2004 and now presides over upscale pot brand Tokyo Smoke.

Lorne Gertner understands the power of a label. “As things become commoditized, then brands and design becomes important,” he says.