Wearing a straw hat and a big grin, farmer Casey O’Neill is busy greeting customers at a Saturday farmers’ market in Mendocino County, Northern California. “Another day in paradise,” he calls out, as one approaches. Fresh broccoli, courgettes and spring onions are on display on his table, all grown at his farm.

​Next to the vegetables is a different kind of crop: mason jars full of marijuana buds, bearing handwritten labels such as “Lemon OG” and “Ogre Berry”. A bong sits at the front of the table, for sampling. “Wow, is that really grown outdoors?” says one shopper who takes a hit. Cannabis-infused honey, lip balm and chai tea are for sale at nearby stands.

California's most valuable cash crop, marijuana, is taking a heavy toll on some of the state's most sensitive ecosystems, with the effects ranging from erosion, contamination, threats to wildlife, and heavy water use at a time of severe drought. 

The situation is prompting ecologists and wildlife managers to urge greater focus on bringing marijuana plots under tighter environmental scrutiny.

As the US legislations around medical marijuana relaxes, with almost half of the states either legalizing or decriminalizing the recreational and medical use of cannabis, we are seeing the development of an industry brimming with new businesses. Potbox joins this new breed of ventures by offering a gourmet, monthly subscription of organic, ethically grown medical marijuana for health-conscious — or high-living — smokers.

It’s a different kind of smoke than they’re used to. Several Bay Area medical marijuana dispensaries say wildfires around California are hurting their industry. They claim cannabis plants are growing around some of state’s fires, especially the Rocky Fire near Clear Lake.

By Wednesday night, the Rocky Fire burned 69,600 acres and destroyed 43 homes.

Timothy Anderson is the purchasing manager at Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland. He says one of the burned homes belonged to a cannabis grower who provided them with product.

Remember the Santa Ana, California, cops who were caught on video munching on what seem to be cannabis-infused chocolate bars after raiding an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary in May? The Orange County Register reports that three officers who were suspended after the incident are trying to stop the Santa Ana Police Department from using the footage in its internal investigation. Among other things, their lawsuit argues that the officers thought they had disabled all of the security cameras at Sky High Holistic and therefore had a reasonable expectation of privacy. The cops complain that the dispensary never got their permission to record them as they searched the premises.

Here is the video in case you missed it:

SAN DIEGO, Aug.

DENVER, CO (KDVR/CNN) - Grow4Vets has been handing out cannabis to military veterans for a year in Colorado.

But the state's medical board has just ruled not to recognize marijuana as a treatment for PTSD.

High There! a cannabis-sharing social network teamed up with Grow4Vets to host an impromptu rally on their Save a Million Vets Tour.

“Now we've created a tour around the country called the Save a Million Vets Tour," Co-founder and CEO of High There! Todd Mitchem said.

Veterans lined up early in Rino's Taxi district, most wearing their colors, letting folks know where they served.

Mitchem came up with the first social sharing network for cannabis users. Now he is partnering with Grow4Vets, helping vets get medication.

Patients who suffer from mental disorders such as PTSD also suffer from a long-standing stigma of abusing marijuana.

This problem has many American veterans fighting another battle — this time for safe access — as more emerging research suggests that cannabis effectively treat, or even possibly cure PTSD.

Studies conducted both in America and abroad have found strong evidence to support the use of marijuana-derived substances such as THC and CBD to have a positive effect on PTSD symptoms.

Last time I got stoned was by accident, I swear . . . I was at a Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park, listening to Loudon Wainwright. A vendor in pink frills passed with a tray of chocolate truffles. For $2.50 they looked delicious and couldn’t be spiked, could they?

Alice-in-Wonderland-like, I took a bite and felt okay. And ate more. Big mistake. It’s the notorious no-no with pot “edibles” that happens only to idiots. Unlike swifter-acting “joints,” edibles absorb slowly and erratically. Some time later, I was kisser-down in the grass and a) paralysed, b) paranoid, and c) feeling so silly. I couldn’t locate my head, let alone my phone.

Each meal is curated and cooked by Carroll, a freelance chef who trained at the San Francisco Cooking School, worked at 4505 Meats and now does in-home private cooking, catering, and dinner pop-ups. Menus change with each dinner, but her past menus at the Cannaisseur series have included house-cured gravlax with walnut mustard sauce, house-cured moulard duck leg confit with brussels sprouts and panna cotta with ginger and rhubarb.