REDLANDS >> The Planning Commission on Tuesday wrestled with a proposed change in the city’s medical marijuana laws.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are prohibited in the city. The city code does not address the cultivation, processing, delivery and distribution of medical cannabis, according to the report.

City staff is proposing the city’s code ban these activities in the city.

The Planning Commission on Tuesday postponed the issue to January and asked that the city attorney and police chief be present to answer several questions that arose during the meeting.

Gangsta rap is as eternal as the disparities that breed it. Our fascination with struggle is equally enduring. Today, the most compelling gangsta rapper working is Freddie Gibbs, an artist who tempers grizzled detail with a polished, effortless delivery. Over the last decade, the Gary, Indiana native turned L.A. transplant has moved from major label purgatory to independent stardom, releasing a torrent of powerful mixtapes before his first official album (ESGN) in 2013. Last year, he released Piñata, a universally heralded album that expanded the boundaries of the genre — featuring production from Oxnard, California’s prolific iconoclast, Madlib. Released late last month, Gibbs’ latest, Shadow of a Doubt, was greeted with rave reviews.

Over the course of The Future of Cannabis program, we've discussed the major opportunities this market presents to both businesses and investors that are able to establish their positions early. While the growing wave of legalization is the most significant catalyst of this generational opportunity, the market driver really stems from rapid organic expansion from passionate entrepreneurs. In fact, that's a distinct trait that the cannabis market shares with many of the disruptive industries we seen historically.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Efforts to legalize marijuana in California got a boost this week after competing ballot measures joined forces behind the stronger of the two, backed by billionaire Sean Parker, a former president of Facebook Inc.

The initiative has the support of Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform. Coalition board member Antonio Gonzalez, who is also president of the Latino Voters League, said the coalition withdrew its rival initiative after Parker's measure was modified to protect children, workers and small businesses.

Despite a lack of Sean Parker — and a most certain lack of his money — the "Adult Use of Marijuana Act," a marijuana legalization initiative proposed for the Nov. 2016 California ballot, has become known as the "Parker initiative." (Parker, long rumored to be interested in bankrolling a ballot measure to legalize cannabis, because apparently that's what billionaires do, has voiced support for the measure, but has not formally lent his name to anything.) 

Growing pot is really easy, and it will make you filthy rich, rich beyond your wildest dreams! In fact, you should quit your job, move to California or Colorado and fill your house with lights! What could go wrong?

Does this sound a little naïve to you? It should, but unfortunately that has been the mentality of so many pot entrepreneurs since the Ogden Memo de facto “legalized” medical marijuana in 2009. The problem is that in order to live off of growing or selling pot you absolutely have to treat growing and selling pot, well, like an actual job. 

Fed up of digging around for their plastic-wrapped drug of choice and rolling papers, two women designed odour-blocking bags and clutches with pockets for pipes and other paraphernalia

The idea came to the two friends because “we are fashionable women of means” who cared that all the stuff in their lives - the shoes, handbags, clothes, sunglasses - properly reflected who they are.

Their accessories spoke of their professional success and their grown-up sophistication. And it had become incredibly aggravating to have to pull out little plastic bags and dig around for a crumpled package of rolling paper every time they wanted to smoke a joint. There had to be a better way.

Eaze, a cannabis delivery startup often called the "Uber of weed," launched an app on Monday that allows users in California to connect with physicians for medicinal marijuana evaluations via video chat. It's the first app of its kind to hit both Apple and Google's app stores.

The launch of EazeMD, which previously operated as a desktop-only site, brings even more convenience to a process that was — before the recent growth of internet-based marijuana startups — quite arduous. 

"Eaze's core mission is to provide the easiest, quickest, most professional way for qualified patients to get access to medicine, in this case, cannabis," Keith McCarty, CEO and founder of Eaze, tells Tech Insider.

Want to take a bite out of the American obesity epidemic? Legalize medical marijuana.

That's the counterintuitive finding of a new study in the journal Health Economics. Researchers from San Diego State University and Cornell University found that at the state level, passing a medical marijuana law (MML) "is associated with a 2 percent to 6 percent decline in the probability of obesity." Over the longer term, this effect could be even larger. Tally it all up and according to the study's authors, "we estimate a back-of-the-envelopeper-person reduction in MML-induced obesity related medical costs of $58 to$115 per year."

With recreational marijuana sweeping the nation, startups and investors are finding new ways to cash in on the green revolution.

California’s Silicon Valley is leading the way with tech companies fighting to alter the public’s perception of the marijuana smoker from the ’60’s Rasta stoner to a sleek millennial-inspired user.

This isn’t your parent’s marijuana and the growing industry is ripe for exploitation and many new startups are hoping to take advantage of the relatively open playing field.

Once a back alley operation, the legal marijuana industry has blossomed into a $3 billion powerhouse complete with its political special interest group.