“Mr. Dillinger, why do you rob banks?” Dillinger’s answer was simple: “I rob banks because… that is where the money is.”

When I was a kid in New York, many many years ago, banks used to run commercials offering toasters and other appliances if you opened a bank account with them.  I remember Mr. Coffee himself, Joe DiMaggio trying to pitch coffee machines if you opened up an account with the Bowery Savings Bank.  Perhaps today Tommy Chong could offer pipes or bongs to do the same.

As marijuana continues to move into the mainstream, dozens of Bay Area startups are banking on big business opportunities in the cannabis industry.

"We are at this precipice: There is a lot of money — real capital — that wants to come into the space," said Ben Larson, who runs Gateway Incubator, a cannabis startup incubator in downtown Oakland.

Out-of-state anti-drug crusaders are taking Colorado marijuana to court. Is it their last chance to stop pot before other states vote on retail cannabis?

Three of the four marijuana-centered lawsuits filed against Colorado officials and businesses were organized and at least partially funded by out-of-state anti-drug organizations and socially conservative law firms, a Denver Post analysis shows.

Only one lawsuit, filed by the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma, appears to be entirely homegrown.

When I asked Andy Nulman about the chances of legalized marijuana boosting tourism in Montreal, I had no idea that many years ago he'd written a script for a film called O Cannabis, about Canada legalizing pot and becoming "the new Saudia Arabia."

In the script, "farmers out in the Beauce and Manitoba and Saskatchewan become the new oil sheikhs, and (Canada) becomes this destination for stoners worldwide," Nulman said.

The co-founder of Just For Laughs and chief attention-grabber for 375MTL, the Society for the Celebrations of Montréal's 375th Anniversary, Nulman says he has not touched drugs in 40 years, and he's a vehement non-smoker. However, he has long considered the ripple effects of marijuana legalization.

52% of Americans, including a majority of adults under 65, support legalizing marijuana

When we first tallied Colorado pot sales for 2014, the first full year of legal cannabis sales in the world mind you, $699,198,805 seemed like such a large number at the time.

Two self-proclaimed nuns, Sister Kate and Sister Darcey, grow and sell marijuana for medicinal purposes in Merced, California. But the future of their business is now in jeopardy as the Merced City Council issued a temporary ban on marijuana cultivation after a 6-0 vote on Jan. 4.

The Sisters of the Valley grow and sell medical marijuana products in Merced, California. However, the city recently placed a temporary ban on marijuana cultivation, putting the sisters’ business at risk. Photo credit: Sisters of the Valley

For many patients, ailments make inhalation or ingestion of medicinal cannabis impossible. Left without options, many have come up with their own way to benefit from the medical aspects of cannabis – by suppository.

Cannabis activist and patient Jenn Bennett said she had previously used cannabis orally, but after learning about the application technique from other patients in the community she found that her body’s response was like nothing she had experienced before.

“I had such a good sleep, the effects of it were in 15 minutes. I was at times pain-free, and for me being pain-free is very rare,” said Bennett who uses cannabis to mainly treat her spinal stenosis, a condition that causes the spinal canal to narrow.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized heroin, cocaine and cannabis. It remains a crime to profit from the sale or distribution of illegal drugs, but the user was not criminalized for possession. If a person is found with less than a 10-day supply, they must meet a three-person Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, usually made up of a lawyer, a doctor and a social worker. The commission will recommend treatment, a minor fine or, as in most cases, no penalty at all.  

In 1990, one per cent of the Portuguese population was addicted to heroin. Portugal now has the lowest addiction rate of illegal drugs in all of Europe. After 14 decriminalized years, overall rates of drug use, drug addiction, drug overdose, HIV and accidental death have all gone down.

People who want to buy marijuana in Maryland for medicinal purposes are probably going to have to wait until 2017, nearly four years after the state made it legal.

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission announced Monday that it will not award licenses to grow and process the drug until sometime in the summer — and industry officials say it will take an additional four to six months after that for the product to be ready to sell.

The commission said it has no target date for allowing retail dispensaries to begin operating and cannot say when marijuana will be available to patients.

Maryland’s medical cannabis program was approved by lawmakers in 2013, but it had to be adjusted multiple times before applications could be sought and submitted.