Plans are moving forward to convert a portion of an historic house first built more than 200 years ago in Harvard Square into a place for registered patients to purchase medical marijuana products.

The Cambridge Planning Board on Feb. 28 voted in favor of a special permit for Healthy Pharms Inc., to operate a dispensary at The Red House, a restaurant packed tightly among other businesses along pedestrian-friendly Winthrop Street.

The plan was opposed by a smattering of neighbors during a recent public hearing, with some worrying that the dispensary could fast become a place to purchase the drug for recreational use and others claiming it would cause “irreparable” harm to abutters.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday will take up the question of whether a business can fire an employee for using medical marijuana outside of work.

The case, Cristina Barbuto vs. Advantage Sales and Marketing, pits businesses that want to set their own rules about drug use against workers who want to be able to treat their medical conditions with marijuana.

• Marijuana is easier to access than ever, with more than 20% of Americans living in a state that has voted to legalize recreational use — and a majority living in states that have legalized medical use.
• But when you talk to researchers who study cannabis, they say there's still a lot we don't know about marijuana.
• There are a few big studies happening right now that should for the first time offer some answers to essential questions.

In many ways, it's the age of access to pot.

As of last November, more than 20% of Americans live in states that have voted to legalize recreational marijuana use. A majority live in states that allow access to medical marijuana.

Cannabis is legal for medical patients in 29 states and all of Canada. It’s legal for all adults in eight of those states and in Washington, DC. But in most of those places, smoking, vaping, dabbing and even eating cannabis are illegal anywhere except private locations with the property owner’s permission.

Whether your product is medical or recreational, most Americans who seek to consume simply can’t, legally, from Washington state to Washington, DC.

Fortunately, some on-site consumption establishments have figured out ways to serve their customers without anyone serving time. Some are modest and homey, almost like stoner rumpus rooms. Others are sexier and closer to the Amsterdam ideal. Some are mobile. Others are arty. One might resemble a downscale dot-com.

As Springfield police officers shuttered a store handing out marijuana for "free" while charging an admission fee, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker acknowledged the state is in a "no man's land" four months after voters broadly legalized the controversial substance for adults who are over the age of 21.

In a Wednesday sit-down with the editorial board of MassLive.com and the Springfield Republican, Baker called incidents like the Page Boulevard store, which operated under the name Mary Jane Makes Your Heart Sing, "troubling."

Selling weed isn’t legal yet, but giving it away disguised as a $50 VIP club package apparently is.

Massachusetts voters passed a ballot measure legalizing adult recreational marijuana use in late 2016, but, like California, regulations for the distribution and sale of weed haven’t been finalized and selling it is still very much illegal.

Giving your stash away, though, became legal as soon as recreational use did, and some entrepreneurial Mass residents are taking full advantage of the loophole, creating makeshift cannabis clubs where a bag of bud is one VIP cover charge away.

Medical marijuana has a long history of being denied coverage by insurance companies. Up to now most insurance companies refuse to cover cannabinoid treatments, typically citing federal regulations as the main reason to decline medical marijuana coverage. This is especially true in the United States where cannabis is a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act with “no perceived medicinal value”.

In New Mexico, an employee hurt on the job was denied medical marijuana coverage under his worker’s compensation insurance and his suit to force the coverage failed. Beside the ruling in New Mexico, lower courts in Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have given similar verdicts to workplace insurers.

As Massachusetts’ marijuana market is poised to move from street corners to store fronts, investors are starting to see green — and it’s not just the plants.

The Bay State will be the first on the East Coast to tap into the legal weed market and industry experts predict big payoffs. By 2020, marijuana sales in the state will top $1.1 billion and it will be a $21 billion market nationwide, according to market research data by New Frontier. But with this much money at stake, some are wondering what role small businesses will play in this modern-day gold rush.

Long a hub for the tech and medical industries, Troy Dayton, CEO of the Arcview Group, which analyzes the marijuana markets, predicts Boston could soon become a hub for marijuana too.

As Massachusetts’ marijuana market is poised to move from street corners to store fronts, investors are starting to see green — and it’s not just the plants.

The Bay State will be the first on the East Coast to tap into the legal weed market and industry experts predict big payoffs. By 2020, marijuana sales in the state will top $1.1 billion and it will be a $21 billion market nationwide, according to market research data by New Frontier.

Long a hub for the tech and medical industries, Troy Dayton, CEO of the Arcview Group, which analyzes the marijuana markets, predicts Boston could soon become a hub for marijuana too.

From “bud bars” to cannabis-infused dinners, find out how marijuana is being used in states that have legalized it.

Four states legalized recreational use of marijuana in November—California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada—bringing the total number to eight plus Washington, D.C. As these laws go into effect, and attitudes toward the drug begin to soften, expect to see everything from cannabis-infused food and beverages to rolled marijuana cigarettes at events such as festivals, weddings, and more.