As California prepares for the era of legal marijuana, Israel is emerging as a potential overseas partner in new cannabis-related enterprises.

As a report in Sunday’s New York Times notes, Israel has been a leader in medical research into the benefits of marijuana, and is currently conducing more clinical trials than the United States, which one Israeli expert called “ridiculous.” With California and other jurisdictions legalizing marijuana cultivation, Israel is moving to expand it abroad.

Will Gaudet was born into the cannabis industry. A Berkeley native, he grew up watching his father’s passion for growing marijuana. But now, 25, he has decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps as a cultivator, and instead, start his own cannabis startup company.

“I believe that if I am going to do anything about changing the industry that I love, I need to start where the most money is being poured into,” Gaudet said. “And it’s not being poured into growing. It is being poured into the tech that will be able to revolutionize the way the cannabis industry is.”

Outside a Sonoma County Fairgrounds exhibition hall last weekend, hordes of happy pot lovers walked around the Emerald Cup harvest festival, already stoned or about to be.

Inside the hall, a panel of entirely sober government officials discussed the ramifications of marijuana legalization, California’s complex and evolving regulatory structure, and tried to answer questions about the future of the cannabis industry that seem, at this point, unanswerable.

In a white-walled room deep inside a southwest Santa Rosa building once used to manufacture heart stents, 11 specialized machines to extract concentrated cannabis rumbled, hummed and popped in production for California’s largest legal marijuana manufacturing operation. 

Five months ago, law enforcement officers hauled away extraction machines and other equipment worth about $3 million from the Circadian Way facility, halting production and forcing the company, CannaCraft, to address a series of code violations. One of its founders, Dennis Hunter, was briefly jailed.

This holiday season, your loved ones may be gifting ganja rather than wine.

2016 was a landmark year for activists fighting to end prohibition. Seven states voted to legalize marijuana, and the industry is expected to close in on $21 billion in revenue by 2020.

In a small number of states, including California, it's legal to gift up to an ounce of cannabis to adults over the age of 21, if the product doesn't cross state lines or require shipping. The laws vary by state, and you should check the rules in your area before spreading cannabis-cheer.

We rounded up 14 of the most beautiful marijuana-related products, from trendy one-hitter pipes to weed-laced glazed pecans — all under $100. Tis the season!

Though the US Drug Enforcement Agency hasn’t reclassified marijuana, easier availability of the drug for study has the potential to unearth new medical uses.

As voters legalize weed across the country, doctors groups still voice serious doubts about its medical value.

Voters in three states approved new medical marijuana initiatives on election day, and the majority of Americans now live in states where pot has been legalized in some form. But despite the growing public acceptance of medical marijuana laws, one group remains notably skeptical: doctors.

Three years ago, Justin Adamcyk and his friend moved from Chicago to L.A. in the hopes of breaking into the cannabis industry. Their idea was to build a business shipping edibles to patients with medical marijuana licenses. They threw down some money to get the ball rolling and then they began looking for investors. But they soon realized that they had very little idea about the regulations they were up against. 

“We were just outsiders looking in,” said Adamcyk. “I think the one big take away was to focus on building a team, especially in this industry.”

What Do Fitness Experts Say? What Does the Science Say?

Two years ago, I left Seattle on a bicycle and rode 1,400 miles down the Pacific Coast. It was an amazing, life-changing experience that was also frequently boring. As the scenery changed from state to state, my process remained utterly the same—push the pedal down, push the other pedal down, repeat. I quickly realized that weed was a wonderful medicine when you're working out for more than 10 hours a day, every single day. Luckily I had stocked up on cannabis from a medical dispensary.

People have probably realized the benefits of using cannabis while being active for thousands of years. But legalization has allowed certain athletes and trainers to publicly support the combination.

They don’t call the Emerald Cup “the Oscars of weed” for nothing. This one-of-a-kind cannabis competition is a magnet for strain celebrities, attracting all star entries from the upper echelon of cultivation. Cannabis Now Staff Writer, Jimi Devine, goes behind the scenes of this stoney, star-studded celebration for a green carpet roundup of the big names from this year’s cup. 

Some of the newest stars in cannabis are shining a little brighter after this year’s Emerald Cup, and the old dogs once again proved they don’t need any new tricks.