As many as five states could approve its recreational use this November, potentially signaling a point of no return for legalized pot.

Recreational marijuana users can now legally light up a joint in states representing about 5 percent of the U.S. population. By the time Americans wake up on November 9, that percentage could be swelling to more than one-quarter.

Voters in five states – Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada – will decide this November on ballot initiatives seeking to legalize and regulate the adult use, production, and retail sale of marijuana. Polling data shows these measures to be leading among likely voters.

The smell inside the production rooms of Kiva Confections, one of California’s premier  manufacturers of edible cannabis, is, in a word, intoxicating.

You won’t just catch whiffs of the powdery hash that goes into Kiva’s high-quality chocolate bars. You’ll also inhale the scent of dried blueberries and the heavenly aroma of espresso beans, which are slowly being covered with cannabis-infused chocolate as they tumble in big metal machines that look like open cement mixers.

The cannabis industry is clearly growing when it comes to lifestyle. Lotions, snacks and even health products now exist with a cannabis twist. Enter AuBox, a new luxury subscription cannabis service created by Jessica VerSteeg.

Opioid addiction is becoming a deadly epidemic in the U.S. and players in the National Football League are especially at risk from the multiple injuries they over their careers.

Now, a group of current and former players is funding a study on a potential opioid alternative – cannabis oil, made in the Bay Area – to help alleviate the pain brought about by a football career.

Injuries like those suffered by retired offensive tackle Kyle Turley often come with a lifetime of pain, usually treated by opiates. “I need a new right hip, I need two right knees. I have got a plate and ten screws in my right ankle,“ said Turley. “I am bone-on-bone in every joint.”

Hezekiah Allen is a third-generation marijuana farmer in this Northern California county, where the cool coastal fog pours off the Pacific Ocean, coaxing pot plants to heights of 20 feet.

The executive director of the California Growers Association trade group, Allen has long sought an end to what he calls “prohibition” and has looked forward to a day when he and the thousands of pot farmers here would no longer be outlaws.

But he said he can’t bring himself to vote for Proposition 64, a referendum on California’s November ballot that would legalize cultivation, sale and recreational use of marijuana.

California’s Wild West of medical marijuana is about to be tamed, on the eve of a historic vote that could greatly expand recreational use of cannabis.

Just as labeling allows consumers to trust the difference in potency between a strawberry-rosé spritzer and 190-proof grain alcohol, new state regulations will demand testing, labeling, certification and licensing medical marijuana — every step along the way, from seed to sale.

The new rules, starting in 2018, could also boost pot prices, as businesses face more paperwork, permits, licenses and other new requirements, driving up their costs — and likely pushing some mom-and-pop growers and dispensaries out of business.

Marijuana advocates are heading into the final weeks of the 2016 campaign with the wind at their backs as the latest polling shows legalization measures currently favored by voters in all five states where they're on the ballot.

This is something of a reversal from just a month ago, when the most recent polling had shown voters wary of legalization measures in Massachusetts and Arizona. But the margins of support aren't huge in any state, meaning that the contests could still swing either way.

Bob Marley's youngest son, along with business partner Ocean Grown Extracts, has created a poetic metaphor and multi-million dollar business model in one.

Damian Marley has announced that he, in partnership with Ocean Grown Extracts, is converting a former 77,000 square foot California State prison into a cannabis grow space that will cultivate medical marijuana for state dispensaries.

"Many people sacrificed so much for the herb over the years who got locked up," says Marley, 38, noting the poetic justice of turning a prison that once housed non-violent drug offenders into a cannabis cultivation facility. "If this [venture] helps people and it's used for medicinal purposes and inspires people, it's a success."