On April 17, Pennsylvania became the latest state to pass medical marijuana legislation, which will take effect this month. And recently Ohio’s House of Representatives has passed a plan to permit medical marijuana in the state.

Leading packaging provider implements scalable technology to accommodate increasing demand in rapidly growing $6.7 billion market.

Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB), a premier supplier of packaging solutions and accessories for the legal cannabis industry, announced the launch of the marijuana industry's first online system that allows customers to design custom-branded packaging solutions. This tool will make it easier for customers to place orders, which is expected to lead to a higher conversion rate and a better ROI.

Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson is planning on introducing a motion that will direct city staffers to explore a ballot measure that would ask voters to amend marijuana dispensary rules and possibly legalize back-end cannabis businesses in town.

Wesson's motion asks city attorneys and other staffers to weigh ballot language that would "extend Proposition D's gross receipts tax to all marijuana-related businesses."

Proposition D, approved by voters in 2013, outlaws weed retailers but gives limited legal immunity 135 or fewer dispensaries that had been registered with the city since 2007. The motion is expected to be introduced at tomorrow's City Council meeting, Wesson's office says.

With the cannabis industry expected to thrive in some states California is the next up to offer cannabis courses to help those looking to get into the industry. UC Berkeley will be offering a course on cannabis journalism this summer that will take writers through the rigors of writing and reporting professionally for a fairly new industry. 

The course is taught by Katya Cengel that will give emphasis on cannabis journalism by David Downs, a leading journalist currently working with the likes of Culture Magazine, Wired, SFGate and contributing author of Beyond Buds.

The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition.

In six months, California will join Maine, Nevada and probably a few other states in deciding whether or not to legalize the large-scale commercial production of marijuana. Residents will be inundated with wild claims about the promises and pitfalls of these initiatives.

Agrilyst, the winner of our TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 Battlefield competition, today announced it has raised a $1 million seed round for its indoor agriculture analytics service.

The round was led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures with participation from Metamorphic Ventures and a number of angel investors and seed funds, including the co-founders of QuickFire, another Battlefield company that was later acquired by Facebook.

As Agrilyst co-founder Allison Kopf told me, the funding round was oversubscribed. She attributed the interest from investors to the fact that the company combines agriculture — something investors are interested in but typically know little about — with the more traditional concept of a Software-as-a-Service business and data analytics.

The headquarters of Weedmaps, the most influential company in California's medical-marijuana industry, is hidden inside a gray, two-story office building at the intersection of Irvine Center Drive and Discovery in Irvine. Inside the green-accented lobby, the first hint that you've just entered a 420-friendly business is a faint trace of marijuana odor. At just after 10 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, the phone at the front desk is ringing incessantly, the office is hopping with vendors dropping off samples, and UPS has arrived with three large boxes.

The language used today to discuss cannabis is rooted in two realms: the realm of THC and the realm of CBD. The former is tetrahydrocannabinol, a compound that has been identified as the psychoactive component of the plant; the latter is cannabidiol, a compound currently associated with the healing properties of the plant. CBD has even been shown to counteract the psychoactive effects of THC.

Israeli research scientist Raphael Mechoulam, who discovered these compounds, described THC as an oil and CBD as “nicely crystally.” In a tradition that dates back for centuries, cannabis plants are bred to have different concentrations of these compounds in different proportions. 

Cannabis consumers are turning to more discreet concentrates and oils.

Smoking pot will soon be as retro as smoking a cigar or enjoying a fine wine.

As the legal market for marijuana expands, product offerings have diversified from the standard dried flowers and cannabis-infused edible items like cookies and gummy bears to vaporizable oils and concentrates. They have become a major portion of legal marijuana sales, allowing consumers more potent and less overt forms of consumption. “Patients don’t want to be stigmatized or ostracized, they don’t want to be obvious,” says Rob Hunt, a general partner at cannabis-focused private-equity firm Tuatara Capital. “It’s important for people to have alternative forms of consumption, to consume in a way that’s anonymous.”