Cannabis connoisseurs won’t be the only ones rejoicing if voters legalize recreational marijuana this election. Expect Silicon Valley’s burgeoning class of pot entrepreneurs to join the party.

Startups are cropping up throughout the Bay Area that put a signature valley spin on the well-established practice of selling marijuana, offering sleek on-demand delivery apps for users and high-tech software for growers and dispensaries. The business models are risky — marijuana is illegal under federal law and stigma around the drug prevents cannabis startups from scoring funding from many major investors — but with recent polls suggesting Californians are poised to expand marijuana consumption beyond medical use, experts expect cash to pour into the industry.

MedMen likens itself, as many cannabis companies do, to an early tech startup. Its West Hollywood dispensary looks a bit like an Apple store, with samples of product in polished glass cases and information about each on iPads. In a grow facility in Sun Valley, north of Los Angeles, marijuana plants grow in coconut fiber, sustained by drip irrigation and marked by thin plastic labels stuck in soil. Beyond the dispensary and cultivation center, the company offers "turnkey management services" to others in the cannabis space and boasts a $100 million venture capital fund.

This is the future of legal marijuana in California: Diversification, slick branding and professional investment.

On 8 November, voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada approved ballot measures to legalize recreational cannabis. It is now legal in a total of eight states. This creates potential problems for road safety. How do we determine who’s impaired and who’s not?

After millions of out-of-state dollars and corporate interests helped legalize recreational marijuana in three states this past Tuesday, some pundits have said the debate over legalization is finished.

Actually, the debate is just beginning.

A new Congress and Administration are in Washington, and it’s unlikely they’ll be friendly to pot industry interests. You certainly won’t see Rudy Giuliani on the cover of High Times any time soon, and opponents to legalization are more emboldened than ever: Recreational marijuana lost big in purple Arizona last Tuesday, and almost two-thirds of localities in liberal Oregon with this issue on the ballot voted “no” to pot shops in their neighborhoods. 

MA voters have approved the legalization of recreational marijuana, making it the first state on the east coast to do so. As of this morning in ME, the "yes" vote leads by less than 1 point with 98% of precincts reporting.

Kevin Sabet, an ex-presidential drug policy adviser who is now leading the national anti-legalization association Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said, "We'd like [Trump] to enforce the law".

Cheryl Shuman claims she survived cancer because of her drug use. Now, she has her own cannabis farm and hosts marijuana parties for Hollywood A-listers. It’s all legal, she says

Cheryl is talking me through how she kick-starts her day. “I’ll have a cannabis juice smoothie,” she explains. “Kale, cannabis juice, carrot juice, apple. That’s usually my breakfast.

“And for lunch I’ll generally have a grilled chicken breast with a raw cannabis salad – so I’ve got leafy greens along with some raw cannabis leaves. And the dressing will be cannabis-infused. So will the chicken breast. It helps with my digestion.”And I’ll usually have some medicated [with cannabis] pretzels and pecans, which I like to nosh on.”

One of the biggest arguments for legalizing marijuana in California was that people would have the new law retroactively applied to their marijuana offenses/cases if Proposition 64 passed. Proposition 64 passed by the widest margin of victory out of any state marijuana legalization initiative to date. As such, people are scrambling in California to get their records cleaned up and/or get their current cases thrown out, or at the least have penalties reduced.

Benjamin Franklin said that taxes, like death, are one of life’s few certainties. But due to a glitch in the technical language of California’s successful marijuana legalization initiative, the state’s pot smokers may prove him wrong.

Some ADHD sufferers claim cannabis is a wonder drug for their condition. Now we need some science to back them up.

When a parent learns their son or daughter is smoking pot, it can be the end of the world for them, especially if they’re teetotalers. First, there are the tears, followed by anger and disappointment, followed by punitive measures such as taking a cell phone away, putting the kid on lock down, and understandably, making life miserable for the typical teenager. But there may be an explanation for why one’s child smokes weed. It may be that the child is treating his/her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by self-medicating, and it just might be working.

Now that California has legalized recreational marijuana for adult use, it doesn't mean you can drop by your neighborhood store and pick up a pack of pre-rolls and enjoy a toke walking down the street. What are the new cannabis rules?

Here are the do's and don'ts for Californians and those of you visiting the state:

When do the marijuana stores open?

You are going to have to wait until January 2018 -- yep, more than a year - before the state sanctions recreational stores. Medical patients can still go to existing dispensaries for their medicine.