We’re somewhere near the crest of Mulholland Drive and the City of Los Angeles sparkles below us. Stretched across the long, flawless astroturf that blankets the yard, there are booths serving all you can eat carnival treats: funnel cake, garlic fries, Italian ice. Large green and purple globes cast their glow everywhere. It’s neither dark nor light. A woman suspended in a giant chandelier stretches in its arms, and reaches down to pour champagne for anyone who wants it. Performers on stilts with phantasmagorical masks slink through the crowd and the clouds of marijuana smoke. Trays of thick joints are passed like hors d’oeuvres. Torches hiss and a woman wonders out loud as she waits in line for a wax hit: “Who’s paying for all this?” 

To the uninitiated, rolling a joint can be a challenge. It’s a serious skill – a craft so complex that machines can now actually do the job for you. There are YouTube tutorials, how-to guides, and a 243-page book dedicated to the subject. Even Waka Flocka Flame, a seasoned smoker, is willing to shell out $50,000 a year for his own full-time blunt roller.

This was supposed to be the year of Pot-Palooza, when five states are set to hold ballot initiatives that would make marijuana legal for recreational users. If all passed, it would bring the number of states offering pot for sale to nine, following similar measures that passed in Colorado and Washington in 2012 and in Alaska and Oregon in 2014.

Roger Jenkins, once known for Middle Eastern deals as one of the highest-paid bankers at Barclays Plc, is swapping dollars for ounces as the Briton invests in a marijuana venture in his adopted home of California, according to people familiar with the plans.

New Theory Magazine visualizes the recent sales of legal marijuana in America with the release of the new infographic. It was just two years ago that the first ever recreational marijuana dispensaries opened their doors for business in Colorado, but ever since, the growth in the industry has been shocking!

In fact, CBS News even reported that “the growing acceptance and legalization of marijuana is helping the U.S. cannabis industry expand well beyond niche status,” with it’s forecast expected “to pump from $24 billion to $44 billion annually into the country’s economy by 2020.”

Recent Globe and Mail reporting has uncovered a “Wild West” of grey-market marijuana sales where product quality ranges from uneven to potentially unsafe. Given this situation, the federal government should proceed promptly with its legalization promise. This will not only protect consumers from hazardous products but also enable industry self-improvement.

If L.A. has cannabis cocktails, surely Portland should have them, right?

Japan More and more voices are being raised in Japan, calling for an end to the zero-tolerance policy on cannabis. One political party wants to see the ban on research on the cannabis plant lifted, thereby legalising medicinal cannabis. Interest in industrial hemp applications has also been growing. Might we tentatively be able to speak of a cannabis comeback?

People flocked to Oregon's first-ever marijuana growers' fair on Saturday where a competition for best cannabis plants was being held, with the winners to be displayed at the Oregon State Fair.

The inaugural two-day Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair underscores how the once-illicit marijuana industry is starting to go mainstream in Oregon, one of four states to have legalized recreational cannabis use, along with Washington, D.C.