SAN DIEGO, March 31, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Payout, Inc. (OTC Pink:GOHE), a leading provider of international electronic payment solutions, announced today that it has entered into a strategic relationship with CannaTrac™ Technology, Inc. (CannaTrac™) for the deployment of Global Payout's closed-loop marijuana industry payment platform. As announced on March 18, Global Payout has developed a closed-loop payment system that resolves the unique challenges present in the fast-growing medical cannabis and recreational cannabis industries by reducing the risks associated with cash transactions, and by solving the crucial payment and transaction execution issues currently plaguing the industry.

Last November District of Columbia citizens voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana, joining those of Colorado, Washington state, and Alaska. Since then debate continues about where and when it’s okay to ingest the weed, how to regulate and tax it, and the moral implications of approving use of a drug that is illegal under federal law.

OVERLAND, MO (KTVI) – Every day, more than 9 million packages are shipped through FedEx. That’s a lot for workers to sift through, as they keep an eye out for prohibited items. But sometimes, one package stands out. Like a small freezer that arrived at the Overland FedEx terminal from California.

“They could tell it smelled like marijuana almost immediately,” says Overland Police Chief Mike Laws. FedEx employees called police immediately.

Officers discovered about 4,400 grams, or about 10 pounds, of high-grade marijuana, stuffed into 12 plastic bags, stacked inside the freezer.

Police say 19 year-old Zachary Haferkamp sent this package to himself from Redding, California. The Hillsboro resident was taken into custody at the FedEx in Fenton.

The lawmakers behind a recent congressional amendment protecting medical marijuana operations in states where the drug is legal strongly rebuked the Department of Justice for trying to continue to crack down on some medical marijuana businesses.

A common refrain among proponents of continued cannabis criminalization is that there exists a dearth of science specific to the plant’s effects on consumers and society. This claim is woefully inaccurate.

Company controls licensing rights in the nation’s largest cannabis market, with $1.3 billion in yearly sales

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Karen Wagner shows Sexxpot marijuana during a sample and share cannabis product party in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

In a Russian Hill apartment, 17 women passed around cannabis-infused gluten-free vegan blueberry almond granola and rubbed marijuana-based topical cream into their shoulders.

The attendees — lawyers and chefs and nurses and tech executives among them — inhaled from vaporizers and erupted in laughter when a woman lauded the aphrodisiac wonders of Sexxpot, a new strain of Humboldt County-grown herb that she recently smoked with her husband.

California's current drought has been caused by the demand for water needed to cultivate cannabis, which, under state law, is illegal for recreational use. Streams are running dry, fish are dying, and it’s just the beginning, US scientists warn.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has recently published a study, the first of its kind, in the PLOS journal. The scientists, who studied the devastating environmental effects of marijuana cultivation in the region, concluded: “Due to climate change, water scarcity and habitat degradation in northern California is likely to worsen in the future.”

A blue ribbon task force led by Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom — and including retired Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos — has been busy brainstorming on the prospect of statewide recreational marijuana legalization come 2016, and yesterday the group released a policy report [pdf here] identifying three key issues on the matter.

California has the oldest and largest legal marijuana market in the country, bringing in $1.3 billion a year. It's also the least regulated, allowing for local governments to enforce their own rules at their whims and a thriving underground industry to smuggle the product to other states en masse.