Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, this week introduced a bill that would allow officers to take a spit swab from drivers who’ve failed field sobriety tests. Portable instruments promise to detect the presence of pot and other drugs within minutes, telling officers whether they should potentially let the driver go free or take them to the station for a blood test and possible arrest.

“Driving is the most dangerous thing we do,” Lackey said Wednesday. “Using new technology to ... get stoned drivers off the road is something we need to embrace.”

Swab tests are widely used on drivers in the United Kingdom, but the process remains controversial.

It may not be much longer before bank branches join video-rental stores and record shops as relics of a bygone era.

Silicon Valley is pressuring banks to change their ways or risk becoming the latest industry overtaken by technology. Hundreds of startups are offering easier and cheaper ways to save, borrow, spend and invest. They are doing it by shifting the battleground to smartphone apps and websites, which function as digital offices that are accessible around the clock with minimal staffing, and by lowering fees.

In the Drug Enforcement Administration's annual survey of the nation's law enforcement agencies, heroin remained the top concern in 2016 -- head-and-shoulders above all other illicit drugs -- while marijuana was a drug of negligible concern. Only 4.9 percent of law enforcement respondents named it their top drug of concern, down slightly from 6 percent last year.

Concern or not, marijuana remains illegal for all purposes under federal law, a policy the DEA emphatically reiterated this past summer. To that end, the DEA devoted 22 pages of its Drug Threat Assessment to pot -- considerably more real estate than it devoted to, say, prescription painkillers (16 pages), which kill more than 14,000 people per year.

It's been an eventful year for marijuana stocks, with activity led by GW Pharmaceuticals '(NASDAQ: GWPH) and Corbus Pharmaceuticals '(NASDAQ: CRBP) clinical trial data releases and Insys Therapeutics '(NASDAQ: INSY) approval of its first cannabinoid product, Syndros.

Let's take a look back and see what the future holds for marijuana stocks.

In June, Microsoft became the first tech giant to take the leap into legal weed.

The 41-year-old company, based in the pot-friendly city of Seattle, managed to do so without stirring up trouble or controversy. It partnered with a marijuana-tracking software startup.

"We're not the sexy company, but we're the smart company," said David Dinenberg, founder and CEO of Kind Financial, who orchestrated the deal. "We're providing infrastructure."

President-elect Donald Trump will soon announce the selection of retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security, The Washington Post has confirmed.

Here is our week’s roundup of the most remarkable developments on the state of cannabis in America, including: Cannabis-infused coffee, celebrity-branded cannabis and a charity that will help patients get high.

#1 Now Serving Cannabis Coffee, but will Road Accidents Increase?

Brewbudz, a company in San Diego, is planning to sell single-serve coffee pods infused with cannabis to help people start their day with a bang.

The coffee pods will come in two different varieties: one recreational and another medical. The recreational pod will contain 10 milligrams of THC while the medical pod will contain 50 milligrams.

There could be significant risk involved in drinking cannabis-infused coffee first thing in the morning.

A month after the election, marijuana legalization advocates still await some clear indication of President-elect Donald Trump’s official stance toward legal cannabis.

Voters in eight states joined the legalization movement on Nov. 8. Those included two of the largest: California approved recreational marijuana while Florida expanded the use of medical marijuana.

Still, concerns continue to grow among marijuana proponents about how a Trump Administration will address legalized cannabis. They are especially troubled by Trump’s planned Attorney General nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization.

Ask a Massachusetts marijuana activist for arboreal advice on what to do if you're growing it and you'll get this key piece of guidance: Do not electrocute yourself.

He didn't lead with that, but it remains solid advice, whether tied to growing marijuana or anything else.

"My suggestion to people who want marijuana here in Massachusetts is it would be very smart of them to grow it themselves," Bill Downing, the longtime activist, said at the outset of the interview.

This means, however, you are co-mingling three things that don't co-mingle very well, he added: Water, human beings and electricity for the indoor garden.

"I would suggest they be very, very careful," Downing said.

A Washington cannabis business group is starting a fund to help patients defray the cost of medical marijuana.

The Washington CannaBusiness Association said Tuesday that the new charitable effort will expand patient access to medical marijuana.

Marijuana’s illegal status at the federal level can present challenges to patients seeking the assistance they can get with so many other medicines.

“People don’t have access to the same kinds of opportunities to get assistance for their medicine,” said WACA Executive Director Vicki Christophersen.

“We heard, and have been hearing from patients - legitimate patients who have an authorization - there are people having a difficult time accessing their medications.”