The state official who oversees Nevada’s medical marijuana industry said Wednesday that he doesn’t see the need to treat the recreational product any differently except when it comes to taxes.

In Colorado, state laws require companies to separate medical and recreational marijuana at both the cultivation level, as well as when the product is sold. There are different checkout counters for medical and recreational sales in that state.

But Nevada doesn’t need to go that far, Joe Pollock, who oversees the state’s medical pot program, told the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday. Pollock said Nevada should sell the same product to both markets, but simply have different taxes at the point of sale.

Canada recently concluded a study on the benefits of medical cannabis and found that the plant was not only effective in pain management, but that it also helped with addiction to more harmful vices.

The study found that cannabis use can diminish a user’s dependency on tobacco, alcohol and other dangerous drugs like painkillers. The research is one of the first major studies to make the connection between cannabis and substance addiction. The study asserts that cannabis can help you get off drugs, and is not the “gateway drug” that it has been described as for years.

Medical marijuana producers oppose federal task force's calls for plain packaging and bans on advertising.

Garfield Mahood has spent 30 years fighting for the Canadian government to require plain packaging for cigarettes.

So, the long-time non-smokers' rights activist says he doesn't have much faith in the government's ability to regulate and restrict the marketing of marijuana.

"They identified tobacco products as a cause of disease back in the 1950s," said Mahood, president of the Campaign for Justice on Tobacco Fraud. "They've never been able to bring this epidemic
close to a conclusion.

"What would give you faith that health departments are going to effectively regulate any health problems related to these other drugs?"

Cannabis extracts were used for therapeutic and ritual purposes since prehistoric ages. What's next with THC, CBD and terpenes oil, wax and dabs?

It's estimated that $1.9 billion will be spent on flowers and $1.7 billion on candy this Valentine's Day, according to a recent consumer survey. But once the flowers are dead and the candy is gone, what do you have? Nothing. 

You probably should have given the gift of weed instead. 

Most state legislatures reconvene in early January, and by February they’re in full swing, moving some bills forward and killing others in committee. This year 27 state legislatures are considering bills pertaining to cannabis in some form. (Well, okay: 26. Mississippi had two medical marijuana bills, but they’re already dead.) Some states are pushing full adult-use legalization. Others are pulling back on medical legalization measures adopted by voters last November. We’ll keep tracking them as they live and die. Most state legislatures adjourn by early June. Stay tuned.

As Massachusetts’ marijuana market is poised to move from street corners to store fronts, investors are starting to see green — and it’s not just the plants.

The Bay State will be the first on the East Coast to tap into the legal weed market and industry experts predict big payoffs. By 2020, marijuana sales in the state will top $1.1 billion and it will be a $21 billion market nationwide, according to market research data by New Frontier. But with this much money at stake, some are wondering what role small businesses will play in this modern-day gold rush.

Long a hub for the tech and medical industries, Troy Dayton, CEO of the Arcview Group, which analyzes the marijuana markets, predicts Boston could soon become a hub for marijuana too.

Men's Wearhouse founder George Zimmer is pursuing a secret passion: marijuana.

In an interview with Business Insider, Zimmer said he's been smoking marijuana since the 1960s. Sometimes his smoking was to cope with hard times, including a battle with alcoholism and his termination from Men's Wearhouse in 2013. While he hasn't had a drink in 35 years, he has been able to "transfer the addiction" to weed, which he finds to be a safer option compared to other drugs.

When Jeff Patterson first created Eaze, an app service that allows medical marijuana patients to purchase home-delivered cannabis products from 100 different dispensaries across California, 80 percent of the marijuana products purchased through the app consisted of raw flower. But nearly three years after launching the app in 2014, Eaze’s 250,000-strong cliental have started spending their money on edibles, concentrates and vaporizers, sending marijuana flower sales tumbling down to 50 percent.

 A bill introduced in the Nevada Assembly on Friday would mandate a blood test to check for driving under the influence of marijuana.

Assembly Judiciary Chairman Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, said Assembly Bill 135 is necessary because urine tests that check for marijuana metabolites are unreliable.

The levels of metabolite to determine impairment — two nanograms per milliliter of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and five grams of 11-OH-tetrahydrocannabinol — would not change under the legislation.

But the bill does specify the specific metabolites that must be tested to determine impairment. The named metabolites are considered to be those that contribute to impairment, Yeager said.