Nevada's fledgling recreational marijuana program finally has some money to get off the ground.

The state's Interim Finance Committee on Thursday approved a seed loan of approximately $871,000 for the startup of the new program under the Department of Taxation.

"We just want to make sure that we are meeting our responsibility and getting this all done by the deadline," said Stephanie Klapstein, spokeswoman for the department.

The program will be regulating and taxing the recreational marijuana industry since Nevadans voted in November to legalize the substance as of Jan. 1.

Visit a dispensary in one of the 28 states that legally sell marijuana and you’re likely to find products with monikers like God’s Green Crack, Super Lemon Haze or Skywalker. That’s all about to change as a new breed of ganjapreneurs swoop into the fledgling industry. In a classic consumer-marketing move, they’re getting rid of stoner slang and replacing it with supermarket-friendly names that purport to help customers live better.

Their message: Weed is no longer just for getting high. It’s to help you through your stress, ease you into sleep and get you in the mood for love. In other words, these marketers want to transform the image of marijuana so that it competes with scores of products already in liquor stores, markets and pharmacies.

A wedding is an occasion of many firsts: the first look, the first kiss, the first dance.

But what about the first toke?

For a growing number of couples in states that have recently legalized recreational marijuana use, the “first married hit together” is becoming part of their wedding vows. Like lighting a unity candle, a ceremonial toke — sometimes from a custom-designed, two-mouthpiece “unity bowl” — signifies the blending of two lives in matrimony.

Democratic state lawmakers say the time is ripe for New Mexico to legalize and tax marijuana sales for recreational use as the state grapples with a budget deficit and plunging revenues.

Democratic Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque on Wednesday announced details of a forthcoming bill to legalize marijuana and tax sales by at least 15 percent to help shore up shaky state finances and reinvigorate the economy.

Local governments would choose whether to allow marijuana sales and could collect a 5 percent tax. Former district attorney and Republican New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has consistently opposed legalizing marijuana or industrial hemp production.

Ever wonder how you can go from being high to stoned? Well, it’s not always how much you smoke but what.

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most widely known compound found in cannabis, but isn’t the only thing that can add to your weed smoking experience. Typically, a marijuana strain testing over 15 percent THC is considered potent but few fail to realize the other contributing factors.

The aroma of marijuana is usually the first thing that draws you into a specific strain or it could also be a deterring factor. Every time I purchase cannabis, I don’t just factor in the THC content but also the smells, look and density.

The National Football League Players Association is putting a formal structure to a growing movement within its ranks that is calling for change in how the league treats marijuana.

Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that NFLPA leaders are drafting a proposal which will change how the league penalizes players who test positive for marijuana.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith has not provided any specifics on how the union might look to alter the penalty structure, but he has said that the union has been looking at shifting the focus of the “discipline” from a punitive approach to a treatment emphasis.

A renewed push to end marijuana prohibition in Vermont kicked off Wednesday with a news conference at the State House.

Members of the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana, including representatives from Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, ACLU-VT, and the Marijuana Policy Project, said Vermont should join other New England states that are removing legal penalties for adult possession and home cultivation of small amounts of marijuana. Massachusetts and Maine are in the process of implementing voter-approved initiatives to make marijuana legal for adults and regulate it like alcohol.

A legal form of cannabis, C-Pure, is being bought, sold, and consumed in Switzerland due to an inadvertent legislative loophole – throwing into question the wider ability and purpose of policing cannabis.

C-Pure is legal under Swiss law as it contains less than one per cent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis. Dario Tobler, director of Bio Can AGOrganic – the company that created C-Pure – says that the product “has no intoxicating effect” because of its low THC content.

Marijuana's official designation as a Schedule 1 drug — something with "no accepted medical use" — means it is pretty tough to study.

Yet both a growing body of research and numerous anecdotal reports link cannabis with several health benefits, ranging from pain relief to helping with certain forms of epilepsy. In addition, researchers say there are many other potential ways marijuana might affect health that they want to understand better.

In an era when marijuana is gaining legal status from coast to coast, giant joints and big bong rips are out. Microdosing is in.