To Keith Crocker, it's clear marijuana could be the logical next step in pushing Juneau's tourism industry to a higher level.

That's why he and business partner Mitchell Knottingham created Juneau Cannabis Tours.

Their idea — to give tours of Alaska's new marijuana industry in action — is a glimpse into a potential new piece of the state's visitor economy.

Some Alaskans are mulling the idea of starting up marijuana tourism companies, while others already have business licenses, but all seem to be biding their time until more commercial marijuana licenses are approved later this year.

Going on marijuana tours in Denver gave Crocker and Knottingham insight into the sort of company they wanted to build in Alaska.

Marijuana has expanded like a weed over the past two decades, but 2016 could be its greatest year yet.

In November, residents in up to a dozen states could vote on whether or not to legalize medicinal or recreational marijuana. Five states have secured marijuana initiatives on their ballots, while signature collection and verification continues in the remaining states.

Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap announced June 27 that the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol will appear on the state ballot as Question 1. Historically, the first measure on a ballot gets more votes and has a higher chance of passage.

The final wording of the ballot question reads, “Do you want to allow the possession and use of marijuana under state law by persons who are at least 21 years of age, and allow the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale of marijuana and marijuana products subject to state regulation, taxation and local ordinance?”

In early January, the California Growers Association (CGA), an organization of marijuana farmers, gathered at the Sacramento Grand Ballroom in the state’s capital to nail down political strategy for the coming year. By most indications, the mood in the sweeping ballroom, with its intricate chandeliers and gilded ceiling, should have been jubilant. In just a few years the association had evolved from a provincial group with only a single full-time grower on its seven-member board to a statewide operation with 550-plus members and a leadership team comprised of young, energized marijuana growers ready to move out of the shadows.

Thursday morning, the government of Canada announced that it has created a task force that will be charged with developing a framework for legalizing recreational marijuana nationwide.

The move marks a “crucial step” in the legalization process, Rafik Souccar, a top law enforcement official on the Canadian task force, said in a press conference.

Legalizing recreational marijuana was a main part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s campaign platform, and his government has repeatedly signaled that it would be making a move toward legalization in the coming years.

When Ohio's medical marijuana law takes effect Sept. 8, people can possess and use the drug without going to jail.

But the new law doesn't specify where people can get marijuana. 

Lawmakers have said that until the state's dispensaries are set up, residents can travel to Michigan or another legal state and bring marijuana back. But legal experts say doing so would violate state and federal laws, as well as a key provision of the federal government's hands-off approach to regulating state medical marijuana programs. 

So most people will likely buy marijuana through Ohio's existing black market.

Here's why.

Strings attached 

The state's medical marijuana database might not be ready by Friday, and that could pose a big problems for patients on the day many of the state's dispensaries will transition to retail operations.

A Tacoma company is in charge of running the database. It’s not yet known what the problem is.

But medical marijuana patients should be allowed to walk into a store such as Urban Bud and use what's called a  medical marijuana recognition card.

That card would allow the cardholder to purchase products without sales tax and buy three times the amount of marijuana that recreational users can buy.

But until the database is up and running, medical marijuana patients won't be able to use their cards anywhere in the state.

Anti-marijuana groups criticize the impact of pot legalization in the state

As Colorado deals with the fallout of an expanding — but controversial — marijuana industry, those who supported the drug’s legalization are acknowledging it will take time to overcome early challenges.

“It will take time to change some people’s opinions that pot is bad,” said Pueblo County commissioner Sal Pace in a recent interview withFortune. The city of Pueblo is the top cultivation spot for marijuana in the state — something Pace notes with pride — but some opponents have started to argue the industry is taking a negative toll on the area.

Since recreational cannabis shops in Oregon started selling edibles and concentrates earlier this month, some dispensaries are already seeing sales increase between "20 and 40 percent," according to local news outlets.

For the first eight months of legal recreational cannabis in Oregon, dispensaries were only permitted to sell bud. Still, according to data from the State Legislative Revenue Office, the state collected $15-million in revenue. This exceeded projections for the entire year by $13-million - between January and May alone.

“Budtender” Michael Rose introduced himself to me at the LoDo Wellness Center in downtown Denver last week.

Don’t let the business name mislead you. This is not a place filled with treadmills and barbells, and Rose is not a fitness trainer. This is a retail store filled with recreational marijuana in many forms — the kind you smoke, the kind you nibble, the kind you rub on your body — all legally sanctioned for sale by the state of Colorado for use within the state.

It’s what the Denver TV anchors call a "pot shop" and the state calls a "dispensary."

And Rose’s title is a derivative of the word “bartender,” his counterpart in the world of serving people who want to, frankly, get high.