The marijuana industry could be a giant in the making.

According to a 2014 report from GreenWave Advisors, a research firm for the up-and-coming marijuana industry, if all states and the federal government were to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana, it would be a $35 billion industry by 2020. Even if this scenario seems unlikely, GreenWave predicts that by 2020 the marijuana industry will expand to become a $21 billion market, with 37 states in total legalizing the product for medicinal purposes, and 12 states legalizing marijuana for recreational, adult use.

But, despite all this promise, the marijuana industry is nothing if not nascent and unproven.

Marijuana. Pot. Weed. Grass. Dope. Most of us can think of a few names for it, and most of us probably have an opinion on it too. Across the world, the cannabis plant is both loved and hated, lauded and denigrated. Advocates of the herb claim it’s harmless and can cure all manner of ailments. And critics say it’s a gateway drug with a plethora of dangerous and irreversible side effects, both psychologically and physically.

GOP presidential candidates dislike legal marijuana — but some support Colorado's right to have the law (Slideshow) - Denver Business Journal

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks at an impromptu media conference on June 27,… more

Republican presidential candidates speaking in Denver this weekend uniformly criticized the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana — but also said for the most part that they would not attempt to overturn what they considered to be an issue of states’ rights.

Jimmy weighs the good and bad of Denver resort CannaCamp: A Bud+Breakfast™ Mountain Retreat. From the CannaCamp website:

CannaCamp is a 170-acre slice of heaven. We encourage you to enjoy first-hand
the awe-inspiring vistas, relaxation, and unpretentious hospitality of our secluded mountain resort. Our property offers guests an unprecedented opportunity to experience the outdoors and cannabis in a safe, comfortable, and social environment.

CannaCamp is more than a place, it is a feeling that you won’t soon forget,
and a rare experience you can’t afford to miss.

DENVER — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not agree with Colorado’s decision to legalize recreational marijuana, but he said Saturday he will defend the state’s right to make a hash of things.

Speaking at the Western Conservative Summit, Mr. Perry made a vigorous defense for the states’ role as “laboratories of democracy,” in the words of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, even if it means sticking up for Colorado’s retail pot market.

“Let this country compete again. I am so optimistic about the future of America if we would free up these states from this one-size-fits-all,” Mr. Perry said. “You’ll see innovation. And from time to time, a state’s going to foul it up. They just are.”

The first registered medical marijuana patient in Minnesota toddled across sunlit grass and into his mother’s arms.

Three-year-old Wyatt sputtered happily as Jessica Hauser swung him up, up into the air to settle on her hip.

Then Wyatt’s eyelids fluttered and his head thumped against her shoulder as he sagged in her arms. Another seizure. One of hundreds that rip through his developing brain daily, endangering his life, unchecked by all the epilepsy treatments the family has tried.

Wyatt suffered seven seizures in the time it took his parents to explain why they’ve already booked an appointment to buy cannabis oil for their son this Wednesday, the first day it will be legal.

“No seizures. Doesn’t that sound good?” Jessica crooned to her youngest.

Can I get busted before Wednesday?

In Linn County, the answer is an emphatic yes, and in Benton County, it depends on the case, said local prosecutors.

“If you do something illegal, our office will be prosecuting it,” said Linn County District Attorney Doug Marteeny, who said that represents the will of the voters. Marijuana cases active today also will continue to be prosecuted in Linn County, even after that behavior becomes legal July 1. Marteeny was unaware of any cases where only illegal marijuana behavior is being prosecuted, and that behavior will be legal on Wednesday.

It's being called the second immaculate conception.

Come Wednesday, adults 21 and older will legally be allowed to possess and use recreational marijuana in Oregon.

But complicating this new, hard-fought-for freedom is one niggling detail: Potential users must receive their marijuana as a gift or get it on the illegal black market because there are still no licensed retail stores in Oregon where law-abiding residents can buy it.

Simply put, residents can smoke and inhale pot, eat brownies baked with it or rub lotions containing the oils into their skin; there's just no legal way to purchase it.

You can buy a Budweiser in Vail. You can smoke a bud, as in the flowering portion of a cannabis plant, in the privacy of your own home. But buy a bud, shatter, wax or chocolate chip cookies infused with THC, the psychoactive agent in cannabis?

Not yet. And perhaps not ever. Unlike some other ski towns in Colorado, which have chosen to treat marijuana similar to alcohol in important ways, Vail has been deeply ambivalent about allowing sales. Almost everybody would agree that attitudes toward cannabis use have rapidly changed, and many people would agree that it’s for the better that the economy of cannabis has been brought above ground.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The Legislature on Saturday passed a measure that that makes several changes to Washington state’s new recreational marijuana law, ranging from revising the market’s tax structure to zoning rules.

One of the main changes to the current system would be the elimination of the three-tier tax structure and its replacement with a single excise tax of 37 percent at the point of sale.

House Bill 2136 passed the Senate on a bipartisan 36-7 vote and now heads to the governor’s desk. The House passed the measure Friday on a 59-38 vote.

An amendment that passed Friday in the House removed language from the original bill that would have required local bans on licensed marijuana businesses to be approved by the jurisdiction’s voters.