Signature gathering was underway for an initiative that would ban all privately owned medical marijuana cultivation sites and dispensaries and create a state-owned and operated medical marijuana cultivation site and dispensaries.

What authors Roger D. Morgan, Scott Chapman, Carla Lowe and the Rev. Ron Allen have dubbed “The California Safe and Drug-Free Community Act” would also allow local governments to ban or restrict the number and location of state-owned dispensaries, and establishes packaging, lab testing and potency standards for medical marijuana.

Robert Gaither is a 39-year-old former salesman, a teddy bear of a guy with a full brown beard that makes him look a little like a mountain man. He does in fact live in the mountains — Lake Arrowhead, to be exact — but right now he is standing in an exhibit space at a downtown San Francisco hotel, showing off his wares at a conference exploring the intersection of cannabis, tech, media and finance.

Gaither is selling an expensive cannabis extraction system created by his wife, Brenna, a biochemist.

They decided at the last minute to attend this gathering, the New West Summit, last Friday and Saturday. And they are glad they came. Over the course of the two days, their booth will generate more than $250,000 in orders.

By Omar Sacirbey

Wildfires raging through northern California because of a early summer have ruined numerous marijuana farms, triggering millions of dollars in damage to cultivation sites and including complications to an industry currently dealing with myriad obstacles.

The fires bring to the center several issues dealing with growers in uncontrolled medical marijuana states. They likewise supply lessons in the realms of insurance, crop location and customer relationships.

Much of the damage happened in federal wilderness land where unlawful grows are located, and the majority of that marijuana works its escape of state rather than into California dispensaries.

Q: In broad terms, what are the policy goals that should be pursued when setting up the rules for a legal marijuana market?

Two flavors of Bay Area life — cannabis and technology — will continue their fusion this winter with the launch of Gateway Incubator, LLC in Oakland's Jack London district. It will be California’s first cannabis company incubator.

Gateway LLC is backed by a leading weed industry holding company, MJIC, Inc., in partnership with “entrepreneur evangelist” Ben Larson and Carter Laren, a director and mentor for the Founder Institute, “the world's largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program.”

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) --

A Riverside neighborhood is upset as a major marijuana home-grown operation with nearly 600 plants sits right near their backyards. The only problem is that the operation is completely legal.

ABC7 talked to several neighbors who expressed their frustrations and concerns with the operation that grows marijuana inside the home and in the backyard.

Laura and Chris live nearby the home and asked ABC7 not to use their last names because of concerns for their safety.

"I was shocked, and I was scared," Laura said. "There were lights glowing inside the tents."

"There are times we cannot use our backyard because of the smell," Chris said.

California has continually been a vigorous state once it came to Medical Marijuana CA or the other drug connected study and action. This is often why CA is taken into account joined of the simplest states in us in terms of drug management. To contend with cases associated with marijuana, Medical Marijuana CA program was established some years past in CA.

SAN DIEGO – An organization is hoping to convince President Barack Obama to change the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ stance on medical marijuana for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“As a suicide survivor myself, it’s a subject that touches me,” said Sean Tiernan of Weed for Warriors Project.

Like tens of thousands before him, when Teirnan came back from combat, he was diagnosed with PTSD and found himself unable to cope.

“Basically, they want to medicate you and that’s causing a lot of issues,” said Tiernan.

Before discovering cannabis as a treatment for PTSD, he was prescribed a series of drug cocktails that he says did more harm than good. He says that’s when he knew he had to take action.

A bad batch of marijuana in the Plymouth of the West has endangered he lives of 12 people so far, as at least three locations in the California city have been reported as having people suffering from a bad San Diego cannabis reaction.

The city's Fire Rescue received calls from at least a dozen sick people from San Diego cannabis last Sunday alone, as victims from a bad batch of synthetic marijuana, called "spice," experienced overdose symptoms from bloody noses to even seizures, as apparently the manufactured substance can vary in strengths depending on who makes it, leading to these disastrous results in this particular case.

Mike Paterson is one of Canada's hardest working and most beloved comedians. For more than 20 years, he's been a fixture on the national comedy circuit and starred alongside the likes of Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale in Hollywood feature films. He's also a writer, theater actor, musician, wrestler and star of a children's television show. He's been maintaining this gruelling schedule, even though he's been suffering with debilitating sciatica back pain. It had become unbearable for him, and with just four months until his wedding, Paterson needed a quick fix to his back pain and weight problem that had been made worse by a life of too much beer and pizza.