After prohibiting medical marijuana for more than two decades, the Southern California town of La Mesa has recently become the site of an unexpected cannabis boom.

In November, the San Diego suburb passed a ballot initiative, Measure U, allowing medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivation centers, and manufacturing sites within city limits. In doing so, it lifted a ban that had been in place since the passage of California’s first statewide medical cannabis law in 1996. La Mesa (pop. 57,065) became the third city in San Diego County to welcome cannabis businesses. (Well, technically it tied for second—Lemon Grove, La Mesa’s neighbor to the south, also legalized dispensaries on Nov. 8.)

Skunkworx Packaging is releasing a new packaging product for cannabis that will revolutionize the industry. The company stated the top enemy to medical cannabis profit isn't the DEA, it's packaging.

A new product is helping local companies reduce losses and increase profits. Skunkworx states Polybags “Turkey Bags” are vital to the integrity of maintaining quality product, and in turn the profit. The professionals in this field know this fact. What separates one bag from the next? Many think they are all the same, but they are not. The crafty sales tactics of the vendors and lack of concern, or knowledge in quality control department is costing these product owners money.

One aspect of legal marijuana that is not often acknowledged is the difficulty of making money in the industry. Despite seemingly bottomless demand for cannabis, companies face problems that stem from its unique semi-legal status. Many pot companies, for example, have to deal with 280e, a few lines of the tax code left over from the early Reagan years.

Lawmakers have been busy introducing a variety of marijuana bills since the election. While there is no guarantee that any of these bills will actually become laws, a perusal of the bills introduced offers useful insight into how the decisions made regarding cannabis might affect our lives more immediately than the slow churn of Washington, D.C.

In the current political climate, it more important than ever to spend some time getting familiar with these bills. Please click on the links to get more information about each proposed bill. We strongly encourage you to get in touch with your elected representatives to express your views and opinions.

Below are six (6) cannabis-related bills that are worth following closely:

President Trump promised in his inauguration speech to create 25 million new jobs for Americans in the next decade. A new report indicates one way to help get to that goal is to allow states that have legalized marijuana to move forward uninterrupted.

New Frontier Data, which specializes in data analysis for the cannabis industry, recently published a report projecting that legalized marijuana will create close to 300,000 jobs over the next three years. But is this projection realistic?

The federal prohibition of marijuana is blocking medical experts from studying weed’s uses in treating Alzheimer’s Disease, a problem facing a growing body of medical research.

Chemicals found in cannabis could be used to help treat dementia, early studies have shown – but further research into the findings is being stymied by restrictive drug laws, said scientists.

Cannabinoids like tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can aid the removal of dangerous dementia proteins from brain cells, according to researchers at the Salk Institute, a renowned biomedical research facility in California.

The Sacramento City Council has advanced an ambitious commercial marijuana cultivation program by finalizing local licensing fees for an anticipated 200 cannabis grow rooms expected to flourish in mostly light industrial zones in the capital city.

As a result of council action Tuesday night, city staff is to begin accepting permit applications for the businesses in early April, triggering a process – expected to last several months – for licenses to be approved.

Anyone who owns and operates a pot business in Oakland will have to live in the city, Oakland’s lawmakers have decided.

That’s bad news for established businesses like Dark Heart Nursery, run by a San Leandro resident who’s worked in the city for more than a decade and whose family has lived in Oakland for three generations.

“We’re sitting here with millions of dollars of investments, millions paid in taxes to the city and 60 local employees. And we’re going to have to shutter our doors,” said Dan Grace, who runs the East Oakland nursery.

Pot will regulated in the city of Los Angeles.

That’s because Measure M was approved Tuesday by voters.

With all precincts reporting, 192,054 voters voted for the measure, giving it 79.36 percent of the total. The measure garnered 49,964 “no” votes for 20.64 percent, according to the L.A. County Registrar’s Office.

At stake was regulation of the pot business in L.A., where there is perhaps 1,000 retail shops, with untold numbers of cultivators, delivery services, testing labs, edibles bakers and concentrate makers operating in the city.

Supporters of the measure were touting it as groundbreaking.