The arrival of 2017 will bring many changes to the country, including falling marijuana prices in states that have legalized a recreational market. Cannabis users may cheer this news, but it heralds the start of an enduring budgetary headache for states that tax legal marijuana sales based solely on price.

An increase in marijuana seizures in Uruguay raises questions about whether criminal groups are taking advantage of delays to the implementation of the country’s landmark 2013 legalization law to establish a firm market share.

According to Uruguay's El Pais, Uruguayan authorities seized 4,305 kilograms of marijuana in 2016, an increase from the 2,521 kilograms seized in 2015, and the 1,457 kilograms of marijuana seized in 2014. 

Denver has started work on the nation's first law allowing marijuana clubs and use in public places such as coffee shops or art galleries. But the details about what those pot clubs would look like are very much in the air. Here's what we know, and don't know, about the looming pot clubs headed to Denver:

WHEN WILL THE POT CLUBS OPEN?

Applications are available Friday, but the city has no deadline for issuing the licenses, which will cost $2,000 a year. An informal workgroup made up of police, restaurants, state health authorities and marijuana activists is meeting to suggest regulations for the city licensing authority, but the final call will be made by city regulators.

Patricia Rosi told members of the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday she sees enough room in the state for medical and recreational marijuana uses.

The head of Maine’s largest purveyor of legal, medical marijuana said on Wednesday that she also supports the regulated, recreational use of marijuana by people over 21 and the creation of a market to satisfy their demand.

In November, that’s just what Maine voters approved when they narrowly voted yes on Question 1, a citizen referendum that allows for the creation of a recreational marijuana industry in the state. This week, state lawmakers are beginning to consider how to implement those new rules.

It’s a cold January night and I’m trying to find a cannabis speakeasy in the nation’s capital. It isn’t easy. I’m in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, just north of U Street. I’ve been given an address, but from the outside it looks like an Indian or Thai restaurant. This must be the place. I descend a set of steps to an underground entrance and walk into a dark and hazy room.

In a coming together that once seemed highly unlikely, California state regulators Wednesday greeted a hotel ballroom filled with marijuana growers, promising that a licensing program to bring thousands of pot producers out of the shadows will be operational in the state by Jan. 1, 2018.

It was hard to ignore the landmark nature of the informal meeting between California officials – including the head of the new marijuana regulations bureau – and members of the California Growers Association, a 2-year-old trade group representing marijuana farmers. 

The increasing supply of legal marijuana is turning into a major buzz kill for growers as prices plunge — and an opportunity for companies that can help cut production costs.

Prices are tumbling as formerly illicit cultivators emerge from the shadows to invest millions of dollars in massive pot factories. In Colorado, the average price sought by wholesalers has fallen 48 per cent to about US$1,300 a pound since legal sales to all adults started in January 2014, according to Cannabase, operator of the state’s largest market. Supply is surging as growers expand and install the latest agricultural technology.

A new report estimates consumers spent $53.3 billion on cannabis in North America last year.

The first-of-its-kind analysis, compiled by ArcView Market Research, spans legal, medical and illegal marijuana markets across both the United States and Canada. At around $46 billion, the illegal market constituted 87 percent of marijuana sales in 2016 (a decrease from 90 percent in 2015), dwarfing both medical and legal sales.

The marijuana investment and research firm provided a 25-page executive summary of its fifth annual State of Legal Marijuana Markets to The Huffington Post Tuesday, ahead of the full report’s release in February.

The debate on the legalization of marijuana continues unabated with attorney Henry Shillingford arguing that Dominica could be a “beacon for the world” in the matter.

However, Assistant Superintendent of Police Claude Weekes raised concerns over the health implications of the use of marijuana saying that “there are risks in the abuse of the drug.”

Both men were speaking at a panel discussion held at the Point Michel Community Center on the topic, “Should Marijuana be Legalized?”

Shillingford gave a passionate presentation, saying that Dominica is considered the ‘Nature Island of the Word’ and “we cannot make a plant illegal.”

New public service announcements in Colorado aim to keep people’s attention on using marijuana and marijuana-related products safely and responsibly.

The Marijuana Industry Group (MIG), a trade association representing marijuana businesses, is backing the campaign. MIG touts itself as the oldest and largest trade association for legal and licensed cannabis businesses.

The campaign seeks to make people aware they need to take precautionary measures when using cannabis to ensure the safety of themselves and others.