For those who call Colorado, Oregon and Washington home, growing cannabis outdoors has become the norm. And in most cases, these growers couldn’t be happier with the quality of the bud that bloomed from soil and sunshine.

After marijuana was made legal in Colorado and Washington in 2012, many green thumb enthusiasts jumped on the chance to grow their plants outdoors. Soon people in Oregon were doing the same, and outdoor growing quickly became part of the norm. Marijuana though, as it would soon turn out, wasn’t the only thing wasn’t the only kind of cannabis plant that would be legal to grow.

On Thursday, CanPay announced the first debit payment solution for the expanding legal marijuana industry has become available to retailers and consumers in the states of Washington, Oregon and Colorado. The service has already launched in 15 retail stores across Washington and Colorado, solving the cash-only problem that troubles the legal cannabis industry.

“Maybe it’ll make your slightly racist uncle a little bit more tolerable.”

First you'll hit the grocery store for a turkey, or sweet potatoes, or pie. Then maybe the liquor store for a bottle of wine to bring to dinner. And then, depending on where you live, perhaps the dispensary, for an extra Thanksgiving pick-me-up—some marijuana.

Just a few yards from the Salem city line, a customer strolled into the Herbal Remedies cannabis shop, and put his nose into two jars with pot strains on promotion: Black Licorice and Berry Funk. He drew in the aroma appreciatively, like a wine connoisseur savoring the smell of a fine cabernet sauvignon.

On shelves were other brands, such as Obama Kush, Space Candy and Blueberry Northern Light.

The shop, though, seems to be doomed at least for recreational sales.

It is in one of three dozen locales in Oregon where voters on Election Night prohibited marijuana businesses, according to a list compiled by Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the of Association of Oregon Counties. Voters in another two dozen towns and counties decided to allow these businesses.

Huge piles of moldy marijuana in Southern Oregon are going up in smoke this fall after record rains in October took a toll on many crops.

"At first I was freaking out about how much we are losing," said Brent Kenyon, a cannabis activist who helped craft the state's rules on pot. "But I've heard a lot of really sad stories from people who lost a majority of their crops."

Kenyon estimates about 20 percent or more of his crop will be burned at his farm near White City, reports the (Medford) Mail Tribune.

Overall, this will be a tough year for growers, who faced an onslaught of russet mites in the summer and then mold in the fall, Kenyon said. The mold destroys the marijuana flowers and spreads quickly, particularly after heavy rains.

Beaverton firm steps into security gap.

Riding shotgun on a truck full of cash and cannabis didn’t make the list of obvious career choices for Chad Holtman, 28, a Portland resident and U.S. Army veteran. 

Then he met an employee of CannaGuard Security, a Beaverton firm that provides transportation, secure storage and electronic security services to marijuana businesses in Oregon and Washington. CEO Noah Stokes made a point of hiring military veterans to staff his company, particularly veterans like Holtman, a former airborne infantryman who said he saw combat during a year in eastern Afghanistan. 

Unless you were living under a rock this week, then you are aware that the number of legal states in America doubled after the election. The states that legalized were of course California, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine. According to the most recent census numbers, those states have a combined population of 49,714,000 people, with California of course making up the bulk of the statistic (38.8 million people live in California).

The state has issued its second "health alert" for marijuana contaminated with pesticides or pesticide ingredients, in this case three strains of marijuana flowers sold from dispensaries in Salem, Eugene and North Bend. 

The Oregon Health Authority is advising anyone who bought the strains to either return them to the dispensaries or dispose of them.

It's not clear how the tainted marijuana ended up on store shelves after apparently failing lab tests. Health authority officials are investigating why that happened. Producers are supposed to destroy the strains that fail pesticide tests.

The state is withholding the names of the growers, saying it's confidential information.

One year after the legalization of recreational marijuana, Oregon’s pot industry is booming with more than $400 million in projected sales in 2016.

But like any new industry, pot entrepreneurs are faced with the challenge of building a strong brand and developing new products to attract underserved customers.

The industry has to work fast to establish itself as a leading manufacturer and retailer of marijuana products because cannabis will probably be legal in the United States in a few decades, predicted Renee Spears, creator of Smuggle, a cannabis products retailer.

Science laboratories that test marijuana in Oregon say the state's recreational cannabis supply undergoes more testing, and is safer than any food product consumers buy.

A handful of labs just got their state accredited license this October.

Oregon has set the strictest standards in the industry.

"Residual solvents, potency, terpenes and pesticides over there," Molly Lyons points out all the machines she uses to test hundreds of marijuana samples every day.

Her workplace, GreenHaus Analytical Labs in Southeast Portland, is among the first accredited to do it. They test several dozen samples from each marijuana harvest, and the oil and concentrates that it can be made into, for pesticides, mold and potency.