I have a bet, for just a Coca-Cola of course, that marijuana will be completely legal in the United States within 10 years. And the reason I am so keenly interested is because it is believed the climate and the soil of Tennessee are just perfect for raising a magnificent crop of ‘Ganja.’ Want me to go a step further: I want to grow it. Really, but I swear I don’t smoke it. Seriously it’s a great cash crop.

Growing (non-psychotic) hemp just became legal in Tennessee, which many believe is a step towards a different “weed.” Hemp is a cousin of “giggle weed,” don’t you see, and is used in so many things today it will boggle your mind.

Despite Americans' statistical lack of enthusiasm for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Green Party still has little chance of getting nominee Jill Stein into the White House. But another kind of green ispoised to have a big election day this year: recreational marijuana. 

Boston City Council President Michelle Wu and Councilor Tito Jackson will formally endorse the state ballot push to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The move, to be announced at a State House event Wednesday morning, puts them directly at odds with Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who is helping to lead the charge against the referendum. 

A 2007 graduate of Harvard College, Wu said she never used the drug but recalled some classmates did during their years in Cambridge.

“It just seems ridiculous that kids at Harvard can smoke pot and have incredibly successful careers while blacks and Latinos, particularly men and boys, who are using the same substance are sent to jail,” she said, voice rising.

Massachusetts voters will decide this November on a statewide ballot measure to legalize and regulate the adult use and retail sale of cannabis.

The Secretary of State’s office has confirmed that initiative proponents,The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, submitted a sufficient number of signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

This year, 2016, is shaping up to be a milestone for the cannabis industry, with its legal branches (both medical and recreational) continuing to show growing demand and increased revenues.

Just last year alone, market estimates for legal cannabis sales, including both medical and recreational (adult use only), were pegged at $4.4 billion. For 2016, estimates, according to the Ackrell Capital U.S. Canabis Investment Report 2016, show a 30 percent increase, to $5.7 billion, as the industry matures and new markets like Oregon open up.

The marijuana business in the U.S. is growing like a weed.

Nationwide, legal sales of marijuana reached $5.7 billion in 2015, up from $4.6 billion the previous year, according to a report from ArcView Market Research. For 2016, the market is projected to grow to $7.1 billion. And by 2020, ArcView says, sales of legal marijuana in the U.S. could top $22 billion.

As it stands now, about two-thirds of America’s marijuana crop — the legal and illegal kinds — is grown outdoors, according to Mother Jones magazine.

With interest in topics like “marijuana” and “cannabis” hitting all-time high levels according to Google Trends, nine states in the U.S. will vote on marijuana measures in the world’s most important general election Nov. 8, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Voters in California, Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona, and Arkansas will definitely be casting a ballot to affect cannabis policy in their state. Voters in Missouri, Montana, and North Dakota have submitted signatures to place marijuana proposals on the ballot, while Oklahoma has cleared to circulate a last-minute measure.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first: how science is increasingly considering the possibilities of medical marijuana as conventional medicine for some cases.

Science correspondent Miles O’Brien has the second of his two reports on this for our weekly series The Leading Edge.

MILES O’BRIEN, Science Correspondent: It’s a landmark place, and time, on the long road to bring medicinal marijuana into the scientific mainstream.

The New England Treatment Access, or NETA, dispensary in Brookline, Massachusetts, is housed in a Beaux-Arts bank building built in the 1920s, a cathedral of cannabis.

Paul Breeden has been coming here to treat chronic pain since the dispensary opened in February.

If recreational marijuana becomes legal in Massachusetts, it won’t be just for smoking.

Edible marijuana products – a broad category that could include such treats as cookies and candy – would also be permitted under the ballot question nearly certain to go before voters in November. As the legalization debate heats up, the smoke-free forms of the drug are quickly emerging as a central focus of discussion.

Edibles caught the attention of the state Supreme Judicial Court, which this past week pointedly ordered revisions to a summary designed to explain the question to voters. The justices said it was misleading not to specify that legal marijuana could include food products.

A new study suggests that individuals are actually using Medical Marijuana not simply as an excuse to get high, but as a treatment for health problems.

The study senior researcher W. David Bradford stated that states in America that pass medical marijuana laws were inclined to experience a significant drop down in prescriptions for ailments that could be treated with cannabis. Bradford is also the chairman of public policy with the University of Georgia's Department of Public Administration and Policy.