Brooke and Rodney Smith opened their Portland, Oregon cannabis dispensary, PDX Tree, in November 2014 – the same month Oregon voters approved a ballot initiative for legalizing recreational marijuana. While they were excited to enter what they hope will be a lucrative experiment in entrepreneurship, they say the state’s fluctuating policies, as it transitions from medical marijuana into recreational sales, have been a headache.

Officials in Oregon are working to address concerns of marijuana businesses that say delays in the state processing regulatory applications threaten chaos for the industry when new rules take effect on Saturday.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has scheduled an emergency meeting for Friday to discuss the matter, an agency spokesman said. Without action, medical dispensaries and recreational retail outlets may be forced to pull some products off their shelves.

A marijuana industry group is asking Oregon lawmakers to delay Oct. 1 deadlines for the state’s new pot regulations by at least 30 days.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the Oregon Cannabis Association last week asked the joint committee that oversees marijuana rules for extra time to meet regulations about how pot is tested, packaged and labeled.

Association attorney Amy Margolis said many businesses simply aren’t ready to comply and can’t afford to shut down while they get everything in order.

“This extension is crucial for the survival of many, many businesses,” she told Oregon lawmakers last week.

Last week, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) ruled against a certain cross section of pot growers in the state. The Petitioners at issue wanted to grow medical marijuana on land covered by a “rural residential” zoning designation. When Jackson County adopted a zoning ordinance prohibiting such activity, the growers sued. Because LUBA sided with the County, medical marijuana grows in that jurisdiction will be limited to land zoned exclusively for farm (EFU), forest or industrial use. In that sense, the ruling is fairly narrow, although it could discourage prospective litigants in other counties on similar appeals.

It’s no secret that yoga and cannabis often work in tandem. In Colorado, Washington and Oregon, the states where cannabis is legal (along with some medical marijuana states like California), yoga studios are ramping up ganja-friendly classes. Colorado yoga teacher and cannabis advocate Rachael Carlevale recently opened a yoga business called Ganjasana that uses yoga to tap into what she says are innate connections humans share with the cannabis plant.

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Alaska

There is no doubt that the legal cannabis business is booming. In August, the Oregon Department of Revenue announced that it had collected more than $25 million in taxes on cannabis sales in the first six months of 2016. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) had previously estimated only $18.4 million in taxes in the entire first two years of sales. That means so far this year Oregonians and our visitors have consumed more than five times the amount of legal cannabis than the state expected.

 As Oregon officials struggle to license all sectors of the recreational marijuana industry before the end of the year, a top official of the agency that accredits labs that test pot says it is overwhelmed — a situation that could derail the rollout.

Gary K. Ward, administrator of the Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, emailed dozens of labs awaiting licenses, saying his agency’s abilities to accredit them is “on the precipice of collapse … because of the lack of resources and the last minute rush of cannabis labs with applications.”

With legal allowances for both medical and recreational use on the rise all over the US, the favored illegal drug of Americans has never looked more professional.

That's because the business of legal marijuana has never been better. We're talking about a $7 billion market, according to ArcView Market Research (a firm that tracks the legal cannabis trade).

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) - Snoop Dogg is in town for several "Shop with Snoop" events hosted by a local recreational marijuana shop, Mary Jane's House of Grass.

The rapper and marijuana enthusiast arrived at the shop's Vancouver location on Mill Plain Boulevard Wednesday afternoon - the first of five scheduled events.