With California on a precipice of a ballot initiative next year that could legalize marijuana recreationally, scores of cannabis startups are vying to capture what is the nation’s largest market in advance of such a big regulatory change.

After being the first state to legalize medical marijuana almost 20 years ago, California is implementing regulations across the industry. Commentators have focused on the effective and efficient processes called for in the new regulations, which are anticipated to bring much needed clarity to a large network of companies and customers in the cannabis industry. As previously reported on Tracking Cannabis, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a set of bills in to law on Oct.

With almost a year left until election day 2016, a slew of proposals to legalize marijuana are already being floated in California, ushering in a referendum not just on whether to legalize pot in the world’s eighth largest economy, but how.

“A lot of money is going to be spent and it’s going to be a big show,” said Hezekiah Allen, head of the statewide California Growers Association, a cannabis advocacy group, of the dueling plans. “We’ll see how it goes. It’s a long time until election day.”

Eighteen proposed initiatives for legalizing cannabis had been submitted to the California attorney general’s office as of early November. Nine of those have been issued titles and summaries, allowing them to begin collecting signatures to qualify for next fall’s election.

San Francisco is feeling the Bern is more ways than one this November.

Billboard Top 10 Hip-Hop star and marijuana business mogul, Berner, debuts a documentary film on the origin of the blockbuster cannabis strain ‘Cookies’ to a live crowd of 1,000 technologists, venture capitalists, media and cannabis entrepreneurs November 21 in downtown San Francisco.

Berner is shopping an Anthony Bourdain-style cannabis travelog series called “Marijuana Mania”, to CEOs from tech, venture capital, media and cannabis at the New West Summit at the Parc 55 hotel next week. Smell the Truth is a media sponsor of New West.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 11, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, the estate of Bob Marley, and Wiz Khalifa are all making moves in legal cannabis. But one entertainer is already the major big player. Billboard Top 10 Hip-Hop star and marijuana business mogul, Berner, has disclosed his pot-related projects gross $10 million per year.

A North County city council took steps once again to keep medical marijuana dispensaries out of their community.

On Tuesday evening, San Marcos city council members unanimously approved the introduction to an ordinance that would prohibit the cultivation, delivery and sale of medical marijuana.

The decision comes in anticipation of the bills signed by Governor Jerry Brown regulating cannabis in the state.

Recently, Governor Brown signed a trio of bills that would regulate medical marijuana in California.

Seeing investment capital support in any sector is an endorsement of future success and in recent months as political wins have continued to mount and community support continues to rally we have seen more and more private investments enter the cannabis industry.

It was hard for Tiffany Wu to tell her conservative, first-generation Chinese American parents she was quitting her high-paying job at a Silicon Valley law firm. It was even harder for the Harvard Law School grad to tell them that she was quitting so she could advise clients in the cannabis industry — and that she smokes weed regularly.

Wu’s childhood friend Monica Lo, a creative director at a San Francisco startup, got the same horrified reaction when she came out of what she calls “the green closet” to her first-generation Chinese American parents about the same time earlier this year.

A St. Paul man was charged Tuesday in what authorities characterized as a “large-scale” marijuana distribution ring between California and Minnesota, involving several suspects and more than $1 million.

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment Tuesday or say whether more charges were expected.

But complaints against two men, along with several search warrant affidavits, offer a glimpse of the stealth operation. “This operation has seen thousands of one-pound packaged marijuana baggies being driven across country from California to Minnesota in rental cars,” said an affidavit filed Tuesday. “The investigation is being reviewed by the United States Attorney’s Office, as the network is large and covers multiple states.”

According to a new medical study, ADHD patients reported improved concentration, improved sleep and reduced impulsivity after using medicinal cannabis. 

Two thirds of the patients who took part in the study opted to forgo their previously prescribed ADHD medication, Adderall, in order to use marijuana on a more long-term basis to manage their symptoms instead.

Higherperspectives.com reports:

It’s a small sample group, yet it’s an incredibly positive development.