Winding through the lush valleys of Pennsylvania the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers flow. At their confluence is the city of three rivers: Pittsburgh.

Long-dubbed "Steel City," Pittsburgh’s industrial landscape has evolved since the heyday of the steel mills. These days, Pittsburgh’s 1,600 technology firms are helping redefine the town, generating $20.7 billion in annual payrolls. Now, Pittsburgh is gradually growing to be a notable player in the cannabis research space, as well.

When the Pennsylvania legislature last year passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana, it did so largely under the impression that dispensaries wouldn’t sell the drug in its plant form, but only in infused oils, pills and ointments.

By next year though, when dispensaries begin opening across the state, that may not be the case. A little-known loophole in the law could allow for dispensaries to distribute plant-form marijuana meant for vaporization.

Hundreds of applicants have asked for licenses to grow or sell medical marijuana in Pennsylvania -- including dozens in the state's southeastern corner -- but state officials on Wednesday refused to disclose the locations of any proposed facilities.

In their first accounting of the flood of applications, Health Department officials said they received more than 500 packages by the March 20 submission deadline, and have sifted through 258 applications. Among those were 31 applications to grow and process medical marijuana in Philadelphia or its surrounding suburbs, and 61 to dispense the drug in an eight-county region including the city.

The mayor of Philadelphia says Pennsylvania should legalize marijuana so police don't have to expend resources on busts like the one in his city over the weekend, according to The Associated Press.

Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, said Saturday's raid at a warehouse hosting a pot-smoking party might have been "overkill." Police arrested 22 people and seized more than 50 pounds of marijuana. About 175 people were allowed to leave without charges, The Associated Press reported.

A teenager denied new lungs because he had traces of marijuana in his system has died after transplant surgery.

Riley Hancey, 19, was diagnosed with a rare lung infection after both collapsed which he suffered after complaining of the flu.

The shock diagnosis stunned his parents and three siblings who described him as a "healthy teen" who enjoyed winter and summer sports.

Riley was working in Utah, USA, for his brother and at a ski resort when he was struck down with the infection.

He was admitted to the University of Utah Hospital and placed on the transplant list but was denied surgery there after tests showed traces of marijuana in his system.

A day after 22 people were arrested at a marijuana event in Philadelphia, protesters gathered to demonstrate this weekend outside police headquarters.

The protest began Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Philadelphia Police Department Roundhouse on 7th and Race Streets.

Dubbed the "Jailhouse Solidarity Philly Smoke Session," the protest was organized in response to the department's raid of a meeting of marijuana activists in the city's East Frankford neighborhood.

Pennsylvania released draft regulations Tuesday for doctors who wish to prescribe medical marijuana as the permitting process for growers and dispensaries continues.

Doctors have until -- perhaps appropriately enough -- Apr. 20 to submit comments on the new temporary rules governing how the medicine can be obtained.

"The process for a patient to obtain medical marijuana will begin with the physician, so it's vital to ensure that our regulatory process for those physicians is open and transparent," Health Secretary Karen Murphy said, in a written statement.

A region of the Keystone State impoverished by industrial decline and ravaged by opioid addiction sees a future in medical cannabis.

The promise of big profits and job creation continues to draw communities to the legal marijuana industry, particularly in places where the economy has long suffered.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in southwestern Pennsylvania. City leaders in Braddock, located east of Pittsburgh, have submitted an application with the state in hopes to land a license that will allow for a new cannabis cultivation facility. The goal is for legal medical marijuana to bring back jobs lost over the past decades by the decline in the steel industry.

Geoff Whaling wants to grow marijuana in an underground bunker in Pennsylvania that was built to survive nuclear attacks. 

It's not because, as you might assume, he is concerned the DEA might break through the door a Whaling is one of several hundred hopefuls who are seeking to grow medical marijuana legally in Pennsylvania starting next year a but because the bunker provides a number of other benefits: it is secure, the temperature is steady and the humidity and other environmental factors can be easily regulated.

Also, it's a bunker.

Braddock is getting support from a key Pittsburgh figure in its bid to establish a facility for growing and processing marijuana for medical use.

Former Steelers running back Franco Harris joined Mayor John Fetterman today in an effort to garner support prior to a Borough Council meeting, where officials will consider the idea.

Mr. Harris is chairman of Laurel Green Medical, LLC, a Sewickley-based company trying to secure one of two state permits in the region to grow and process marijuana.