Today, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and its supporters will participate in a “Day of Action” to mobilize opposition to the appointment of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as US Attorney General.

“Senator Sessions’ views are out of step with mainstream America and they are in conflict with laws throughout a majority of states,” stated NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri, “We must demand that Senators on the Judiciary Committee ask this nominee whether he intends to respect the will of the voters in these states and whether he truly believes that no ‘good people’ have ever smoked pot. If he truly believes such outdated Reefer Madness rhetoric, then he should not be the next Attorney General.”

Cannabis grows are getting more advanced thanks to these forward-thinking companies.

Many companies are expanding their reach into cultivation technology. The better the growing conditions, the better the cannabis. The major area of focus, however, is sustainability, making it a priority to help farmers save on electricity and water in order to reduce operating expenses and protect profit margin. Here are a few companies that are making a splash on the cultivation side of the industry.

A “targeted” cyber attack on a marijuana software company triggered an outage that hobbled point-of-sales and inventory systems for dispensaries scattered across the United States.

Denver-based MJ Freeway on Sunday morning tweeted it was experiencing an outage of its inventory system and was unable to process transactions. The cause of the “system interruption” was believed to be a cyber attack on its main databases and back-ups, officials told Marijuana Business Daily, which first reported on the outage:

In the last few years, attitudes to marijuana in the U.S. appeared to be easing.

And in many ways, they have. Four states have fully legalized recreational cannabis, and four more voted to follow them in November.

But the same election that doubled the number of pot-tolerant states brought Donald Trump into the White House. With him come people in key cabinet positions who loathe marijuana and have at least some power to act on it. Marijuana is still illegal under U.S. federal law.

The likely consequence: an end to the easygoing attitude that the Obama administration brought to states that chose legalization.

Several bills pre-filed in 2017 legislature.

Several bills filed by Texas lawmakers would decriminalize marijuana in the state, or at least allow it for medical reasons.

The 2017 session begins Tuesday.

"I believe Texas is at a tipping point where we're seeing the rest of the country having a sensible marijuana policy,” said Shaun McAlister of Arlington, the leader of DFW NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Eight states have now legalized marijuana possession. Some 28 allow it to be used for medicinal purposes. 

But critics, like recently retired Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics agent Corky Schalchlin of Frisco, don’t see any changes coming.

Medicinal Genomics and Courtagen Life Sciences today announced it has signed a co-promotion agreement with the 

The marijuana market was nearly as large as the opiate market in 2016 and resulted in 0 overdose deaths.  By the end of 2017, 29 states and the District of Columbia will allow legal sales of marijuana, 8 of these states allow recreational marijuana sales.  In 2016, the national market for marijuana was nearly $7 billion, according to Arcview Market Research Group.   The opioid market was slightly larger at $10 billion in the US last year.

California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada recently passed laws legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota enacted medical marijuana initiatives, bringing the total of states (and the District of Columbia) that allow some form of marijuana use to 33.

What does this trend mean for entrepreneurs thinking of entering the cannabis industry?

National prohibitions against interstate cannabis commerce and federal banking and drug laws are keeping big companies at bay, which opens the door for small businesses and startups to establish dispensaries, retail stores, cultivators, processing, manufacturing and testing facilities.

In a new petition from Americans for Safe Access and Change.org, over 70,000 people and counting, are calling on the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop disseminating false information about medical cannabis immediately and ensure that any future information about medical cannabis treatment reflects medically-accurate and up-to-date facts.

Truman Bradley's pitch for a new kind of cannabis company began with a simple slogan. "It's what's on the inside that counts."

Most companies that make marijuana vaporizer cartridges or concentrates buy their source materials from farmers, slap their sticker on the packaging, and ship it off to dispensaries.

The end user knows little about where their weed comes from or its quality.

That didn't sit right with the former business manager. "None of the major companies were really providing their own source material, and as a result, they were subject to the whims of whatever they could get," Bradley said. "So the quality was fluctuating quite a bit."