It's a university far off the radar of the Princeton Review annual college rankings, yet it boasts more than 25,000 graduates, all lured by the promise of careers in the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Through sheer force of academia, marijuana-centric Oaksterdam University in Oakland, California, is determined to foster a sense of legitimacy in a line of business that struggles with stigma.

State gives medical cannabis producers permission to expand operations but still keeps records secret 

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- P. Vincent Mehdizadeh, Founder and now former majority shareholder of Medbox, Inc. (OTCQB:MDBX) announced retiring 13 million shares of MDBX, including all 2 million preferred shares in his possession, carrying 5 to 1 conversion to common shares and super voting rights, along with an additional 3 million common shares. The shares have been retired, or in effect cancelled, resulting in 13 million less shares issued and outstanding on a fully diluted basis.

Wildfires have burned tens of thousands of acres across California in recent weeks, including many areas where marijuana growers plant their crops. Can firefighters battling blazes near them -- or really anyone, if they get close enough -- get high?

"Unfortunately, no. Or fortunately, no, depending on your perspective," said Ryan Vandrey, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, in an interview with LiveScience, adding that it's highly unlikely that someone within range of the fire could become intoxiated by breathing in its smoke.

SAN FRANCISCO — The likelihood that California voters will be asked to legalize recreational marijuana next year is prompting lawmakers to make a serious run at reining in the state's vast medical marijuana industry — a job they have deferred for nearly two decades.

A pair of bills pending in the California Legislature would create the first statewide regulations for medical marijuana growers, manufacturers of pot-infused products, and distributors such as storefront dispensaries and delivery services.

California authorized marijuana use for health purposes with a 1996 ballot measure that allows doctors to recommend the drug for any ailment, deliberately leaving the specifics for how it should be produced and sold for another day.

With a vote on recreational marijuana legalization likely for 2016, legislators are now working on statewide regulations for medical marijuana, which became legal in 1996

SAN FRANCISCO — The likelihood that California voters will be asked to legalize recreational marijuana next year is prompting lawmakers to make a serious run at reining in the state’s vast medical marijuana industry — a job they have deferred for nearly two decades.

A pair of bills pending in the California Legislature would create the first statewide regulations for medical marijuana growers, manufacturers of pot-infused products, and distributors such as storefront dispensaries and delivery services.

The California National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed initiative language this week for marijuana legalization in California. It’s my understanding that the California NAACP does not intend to run a campaign itself, but is filing the initiative as a kind of ‘road map’ of what the organization would like to see in a marijuana legalization effort in California. There are multiple legalization efforts in California right now (as expected), but the one that seems to be getting the most traction is ReformCA. I could be wrong since I don’t live in California, but that’s what it seems like to me based off of my conversations with leading cannabis advocates.

Steve and Andrew DeAngelo are two of the best-known names and most-recognizable faces in the cannabis industry.

The bros started Harborside University hospital in Oakland, California, nearly a years back and opened a 2nd area in San Jose not long after that, producing among the biggest dispensary operations in the nation.

Now, the DeAngelos are seeking to reinforce their presence in the cannabis market by opening extra locations– all under the Harborside banner.

“We have growth strategies, both in other states and in California,” said Steve DeAngelo, who is seen by many as the godfather of the marijuana market. “All the western markets that we can legally operate in interest us.”

LOS ANGELES -- Graffiti-tagged buildings, barricaded doors and iron-barred windows mark nearly every block of Avalon Boulevard as it cuts through the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Wilmington, 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

The streets are lined with small mom-and-pop shops - clothing stores, a piñata shop, garages and small, family-owned restaurants - and a clutch of illegal medical marijuana dispensaries, some located within feet of each other.

Other nearby dispensaries are shuttered with signs announcing 'closed,' 'for lease' and 'for rent' - the result of the city's most recent attempts to close the door on L.A.'s robust illegal medical marijuana industry. But when one dispensary closes, it usually opens somewhere else, police say.

Let me not be hypocritical and claim that as a graduate university student in the 1970s, I did not smoke (and inhale) marijuana! But as a lifetime non-smoker, this was a very brief flirtation. Today I am ambivalent toward cannabis issues with my reference largely focused on the Israeli research that seems to be balanced, authoritative and ongoing. Their researchers admit that many questions remain as to the efficacy of various chemicals in cannabis oil and possible deleterious side-effects.