Use these insider tips to get in on the Green Rush.

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.

For weeks, Bill Myer studied images of Phoenix neighborhoods, pored over zoning maps and drove the streets in search of property that could house a new medical-marijuana dispensary.

Myer, of Phoenix, already owns a dispensary in Glendale, but with state officials poised to award a second round of licenses since medical marijuana became legal in 2010, he hired a surveyor to do measurements once he narrowed in on a site. He found one property that could work and talked to the owner about leasing or buying the building if he gets a license.

“It’s nothing more than a lottery ticket. It’s a $5,000 lottery ticket, basically,” Myer said.

But if he wins, he wins big. That ticket could be worth millions.

I have a bet, for just a Coca-Cola of course, that marijuana will be completely legal in the United States within 10 years. And the reason I am so keenly interested is because it is believed the climate and the soil of Tennessee are just perfect for raising a magnificent crop of ‘Ganja.’ Want me to go a step further: I want to grow it. Really, but I swear I don’t smoke it. Seriously it’s a great cash crop.

Growing (non-psychotic) hemp just became legal in Tennessee, which many believe is a step towards a different “weed.” Hemp is a cousin of “giggle weed,” don’t you see, and is used in so many things today it will boggle your mind.

Arizona residents will soon be voting yes or no on marijuana use.

The Arizona Secretary of State officially certified The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol's petition to legalize marijuana in Arizona, which means the measure will be placed on November's ballot as Proposition 205.

"It's exciting, it's a step forward, but it's not surprising," J.P. Holyoak said. "We did things the right way, we did things properly."

Those in favor of "Yes on 205" say it would allow adults 21 and older to possess limited amounts of marijuana and establish a system in which marijuana is regulated similarly to alcohol.

Despite Americans' statistical lack of enthusiasm for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Green Party still has little chance of getting nominee Jill Stein into the White House. But another kind of green ispoised to have a big election day this year: recreational marijuana. 

Researchers in Maryland and Arizona are looking for veteran volunteers to smoke up to two joints a day in a new study designed to find out if marijuana helps relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We’re not arguing that cannabis is a cure, but our hypothesis is that it will at least reduce the symptoms,” says physician and study organizer Dr. Sue Sisley.

The $2.2 million study, paid for by a grant from the state of Colorado to the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, will be conducted at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and Sisley’s Scottsdale Research Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

Cannabis researchers say recreational marijuana won't impact work

If the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana passes this year, Arizona’s existing medical marijuana program will be put under the umbrella of a newly formed agency.

Arizona voters will decide Nov. 8 if they want to legalize recreational marijuana — that’s if Arizona business leaders aren’t successful in blocking the vote through the courts.

In 2010, Arizona voters passed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, making it legal to buy the Schedule 1 drug for medicinal purposes only. That move created a budding industry ranging from medical marijuana dispensaries to consulting and marketing companies.

With interest in topics like “marijuana” and “cannabis” hitting all-time high levels according to Google Trends, nine states in the U.S. will vote on marijuana measures in the world’s most important general election Nov. 8, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Voters in California, Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona, and Arkansas will definitely be casting a ballot to affect cannabis policy in their state. Voters in Missouri, Montana, and North Dakota have submitted signatures to place marijuana proposals on the ballot, while Oklahoma has cleared to circulate a last-minute measure.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry has joined forces with leaders from across the state to stop a group that is trying to get a recreational marijuana initiative on the ballot this fall.

In a complaint filed in the Superior Court of Arizona, the plaintiffs allege that the circulars used to convince Arizona voters to sign a petition to get the measure on the ballot were fraudulent and misleading. A preliminary hearing is expected tomorrow.

But J.P. Holyoak, chairman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said his opponents are willing to do and say anything to maintain the failed policy of marijuana prohibition.