What constitutes a serving of marijuana? What's the effect of marijuana on breastfed infants, pregnant women, children and teens? How should Oregon address marijuana use among teens?

A new Oregon Health Authority  committee hopes to take up such public health questions as the state drafts rules for a new regulated marijuana industry that's set to launch next year. The agency plans to convene a Marijuana Scientific Advisory Committee to lend expertise to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, the agency charged with regulating recreational cannabis.

A  worker at a Louisville, Colorado, dispensary handles bags of marijuana delivered March 27 by CannaRabbit. Couriers do more than carry pot for the state's network of more than 800 growers, manufacturers, dispensers and laboratories. The industry remains mostly cash only as federally chartered banks have been hesitant to extend loans for trade that U.S. authorities may see as against the law.

At a farm in the foothills of Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Corey Young tucks his client's marijuana into a shoebox-sized container in an unmarked white van and heads out on the road.

"We don't want to be going through a small town and have someone see bins in the back," said Young, a founder of courier service CannaRabbit. "We do not want to stick out at all."

MBank, the small Oregon-based financial institution that has serviced the cannabis industry since last year, told Marijuana Business Daily that it will close all of its accounts with marijuana companies in the next two months.

Jef Baker, the CEO and president of MBank, said the cost and time spent on compliance is too much for the Gresham, Oregon-based community bank to handle. The company – which quickly became one of the largest banks serving the marijuana industry – has about 70 to 75 accounts with cannabis businesses, Baker said. Most of them are in Oregon, though a few are in Washington State.

EUGENE, Ore. - With just days left to file income taxes, Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wyden introduced legislation that would allow marijuana businesses to take deductions as long as they are following state laws.

Wyden has also proposed a tax reform plan that would make filing taxes easier and create incentives for local businesses.

“We really have a one page form, just over 30 lines long and if we go to something like that - Oregonians are going to be able to get their April back," Wyden said.

He said these changes would reflect the will of Oregon voters and provide some certainty for small businesses.

He hopes to move forward with these tax changes in the upcoming months.

In 2011, the only place you could buy a pound of pot online was Silk Road, an illegal marketplace labeled by the media as the “Amazon of drugs.”

In 2015, there’s a website run by veteran commodity traders where Colorado growers and retailers can trade cannabis online – legally.

The Denver-based company Amercanex launched its online marketplace last summer, and it has plans to expand outside of Colorado by the end of 2015.

Retired Silicon Valley engineer Angelo Mallol, 56, turned out Sunday for a seminar on how to start a small business – in the pot trade.

He asked questions as instructor Gerry Bedore of the Cannabis Career Institute spoke about emerging opportunities for entrepreneurs wanting to enter California’s medical marijuana market and cash in on a likely 2016 state ballot initiative to legalize recreational pot use.

The Cannabis Career Institute, founded by a Los Angeles marijuana activist and pot deliveryman known as “The Cannabis Warrior,” held a daylong Sacramento program on how to open cannabis businesses, from niche bakeries and organic gardens to marijuana distribution services.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene) & Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) are pushing a bill that will close a loophole for Oregon marijuana users looking to buy firearms.

The bill, SB 941, will expand background checks required for most personal sales of firearms. The bill requires people selling a gun to go to a gun dealer and request a background check on the person they want to sell the gun to. As part of that background check, the person wanting to buy the gun will fill out ATF Form 4473.

Weed has gone public.

A social network platform for cannabis users, MassRoots, on April 9 secured the first initial public offering for any company with ties to the marijuana industry. The 2-year-old Denver-based startup is valued at $45 million, with stock now traded publicly through the OTC Markets Group marketplace at 10 cents per share.

AURORA, COLORADO -- Sweet Leaf, a marijuana store in this Denver suburb, doesn't look like much from, the outside. Windows are blocked. A sign on the door announces that only people 21 and older can come in.

Inside, visitors are greeted with crisp, white walls splashed with cheery magenta polka dots. Jay Z provides the soundtrack. The shop hums from the time it opens at 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. when employees turn away customers still waiting to get in. On a recent afternoon, each of the dozen or so chairs in the waiting room was taken.

Sweet Leaf is a chain of five marijuana shops in the Denver area. The company includes a large scale marijuana grow operation and a mix of recreational and medical marijuana outlets.

Many marijuana advocates are saying 2016 will be the year for marijuana legalization, thanks in part to a new poll which finds that a majority of voters in several swing stats support legalizing marijuana.

According to the Quinnipiac survey,  55 percent of voters in Florida, 52 percent in Ohio, and 51 percent in Pennsylvania, are in favor of allowing adults “to legally possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”

As for Medical Marijuana the numbers are even more staggering, with 84 percent of the voters in Florida and Ohio and 88 percent in Pennsylvania stating that they believe medical marijuana should be legal.