The push for legalization—particularly farming—is being hampered by in a number of ways.

I finally escaped Washington, D.C., last month, arriving by car with my girlfriend as new residents of Seattle early this month.

I've welcomed most of the changes I've seen here—apart from the Lenin Statue near our apartment. The traffic is lighter. The food is better. The people are nicer. The neighborhoods are more walkable. The mountains are beautiful. Most politicians and bureaucrats are further away.

Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt - who was born 135 years ago today - is an enigmatic figure in cannabis culture. His arguments in support of repealing alcohol prohibition in America - which he accomplished in 1933 - can be applied to support cannabis legalization. But at the same time, he's the president who signed marijuana prohibition into law in 1937. So at first glance, he's both a hero and a villain in the legalization movement.

But the whole story is much more complicated than that. Here's an overview of Roosevelt's complex position on prohibition.

A 'Damp' Candidate 

While campaigning for president in 1932, Roosevelt pledged to repeal alcohol prohibition. It was a defining moment in his evolving political career.

Pending legalization across the United States, the marijuana business could blossom into a $45 billion industry.

Even more exciting, though are the ways in which technology is changing the future of mary jane. From smartphone apps to greenhouse technology, here are four ground-breaking innovations in cannabis.

1. Social networks for smokers

420-friendly Facebook? It's a thing. 

Cannabis and ecommerce would complement one another like seed and soil, if only federal law would allow it.

No market, niche or otherwise, will survive without a strong presence in ecommerce. Whether it's business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-customer (B2C), ecommerce must be a part of any business and marketing strategy. If your business is behind the curve on omnichannel strategies, you're inviting problems. It's simply incumbent on any business to optimize the buying experience. And, that means putting price, product, and purchase in front of the customer so the buy decision can be swift and actionable. 

State Representative Robin Lundstrum (R-District 87) helped introduced three bills into the House that looked to amend the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment in several different ways.

On Monday, Rep. Lundstrum, along with Senator Gary Stubbefield (R-District 6) as a primary sponsor in the Senate, introduced a bill that would put a ban on medical marijuana edibles. The proposed amendment to the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, HB1392, would not allow medical marijuana edibles to be manufactured, sold, purchased, or exchanged in Arkansas. However, a patient prescribed medical marijuana or their caregiver may still put marijuana into their food or drink.

It’s quite possible that cannabis recently became medicinally or recreationally legal in your state, which means that cannabis will be (or already is) sold in storefronts near you. But before you jump for joy and head towards the nearest cannabis shop, make sure you know the difference between a medical dispensary and a recreational, adult-use store. Knowing these differences will help prepare you for your first visit to either type of business and equip you with a few good tips to help you get the most out of your legal cannabis purchase.

Republican Rep. Brad Daw thinks the dozens of states that have implemented medical marijuana laws have approached the issue incorrectly.

Instead of determining what constitutes medicine through science and research, Daw said, they have done so through legislative or initiative-bound mandate.

"It became clear to me that we need to do it the right way," said Daw, from Orem. "Let's let the research be the guiding factor to decide what is medicine and what is not."

Lawmakers took a first step to that goal Monday, when a House committee unanimously approved Daw's measure allowing for expanded research into medical marijuana in the state.

Since passage of Proposition 64 in California last November, my firm has been getting calls nearly non-stop about what it takes to secure a license to operate a marijuana business in the City of Los Angeles. Some are asking me about “buying” a Proposition D-compliant dispensary now to secure a California retail cannabis license from the state in the future.

The jokes were aplenty, from replacing the pen with toys and cutlery to handling him a guitar and a violin.

If the last online offering of Barack Obama’s presidency was a whole spate of Joe Biden and Obama memes (and let’s face it, they’re so awesome we can’t get enough of them), then the current US President Donald Trump has been an unending source of photoshoppping memes and battles online ever since his election campaigning days. That he’s now ‘the most powerful man in the world’, who justifiably thinks owning the nuclear codes is ‘very, very scary’, does nothing to lessen the number of memes inspired by him.

The world’s largest cannabis directory, POTDRIVE™, is set to release 1st Quarter 2017 to an industry only too willing to connect and grow: The global cannabis community. POTDRIVE™, is the newest concept and product from Mr. Bardia Rahimzadeh (‘Rahim’ for short). POTDRIVE™ is an App representing the world’s largest search engine and B2B utility platform firmly focused on the cannabis community’s growing world market. “The POTDRIVE™ App is the ‘Google® -meets Yelp®- meets Uber®’ application that will support and enhance the explosion of cannabis B2B entities as well as their resulting consumer base. It’s the largest, valid representation of the entire global cannabis marketplace at your fingertips,” says Bardia Rahim founder and creator of the POTDRIVE™ App.