The Elko Daily Free Press is counting down the days until marijuana is legal in Nevada by answering questions concerning the law.

Q: Who is allowed to sell marijuana starting Jan. 1?

A: While people who are 21 and older will be able to legally possess an ounce or less of marijuana starting Jan. 1, don’t expect any places to legally sell it at the beginning of the year.

The Department of Taxation has 12 months from Jan. 1, 2017, to be ready to receive applications for marijuana establishments. Once the Department begins receiving those applications, it will only accept them from places holding medical marijuana establishment certificates for the first 18 months.

After that other people will be able to apply.

With last month’s election, the U.S. reached a tipping point in the long fight to decriminalize cannabis. More than half of states have now declared pot legal, either for medical or recreational use. Seven states plus the District of Columbia have now legalized recreational pot, and 21 others allow it to be taken as medicine.

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."

Electricity-intensive cannabis production has a big carbon footprint, but with legalization, some eco-conscious growers want to make pot a shining model of sustainability.

After a flood of pro-pot ballot measures in November, recreational marijuana use will soon be legal in eight U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana will be legal in 29 states. Barring a federal clampdown from the incoming Trump administration, analysts expect legal cannabis to be a boom industry, particularly in California, the world's sixth largest economy.

Donald Trump’s selection of anti-drug hardliner Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III for his attorney general nominee has entrepreneurs in the legal marijuana industry worried. While there is cautious optimism stemming from Mr. Trump's statements both in favor of medical marijuana and states' rights in this area, Senator Sessions has voiced anti-legalization sentiments for years and could instruct the department of justice to prosecute those in the marijuana industry.

Donald Trump has admitted the presidency is "a bigger job than I thought", a leading Republican has revealed.

After meeting the president-elect last week, former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich told 'USA Today' the billionaire businessman was starting to appreciate the burden of the Oval Office.

Mr Gingrich said: "He commented, 'This is really a bigger job than I thought.' Which is good. He should think that."

As president of the United States, Mr Gingrich said "you have war and peace, you have enormous powers...and it all comes down to the Oval Office and it all comes down to you."

Access to medicinal cannabis is improving Americans’ quality of life in ways few advocates could have initially predicted. As the number of people utilizing marijuana grows, so too does our understanding of its societal benefits. Here are some of the latest scientific findings:

The country with the biggest weed habit? That might surprise you.

A new report claims the UK government should legalise marijuana because it's “the only solution to crime and addiction problems”.

The strongly-worded study - titled The Tide Effect: How the World is Changing its Mind on Cannabis - was produced by the nonpartisan Adam Smith Institute and has the backing of several cross-party MPs including former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.

Is it possible to put cannabis on the blockchain?

With one company, that’s exactly what’s taking place. Motherboard reports that Medicinal Genomics is creating a registered list of all cannabis genomes to be stored on the bitcoin blockchain. The purpose is to take any confusion out of marijuana purchases; MG wants to make sure every customer receives the strain they’ve set out to purchase, as each type can have varying effects on patients.

Australia’s largest medicinal cannabis grower, which is backed by finance sector identities Barry Lambert and Chris Cuffe, has decided to stop production here and move to the US where it says the legal framework is much more favourable.

Ecofibre recently completed a $12 million capital raising with cash from Mr Lambert and Mr Cuffe. But it will close a business that has grown cannabis on 340 acres in the Hunter Valley in NSW – used for medical experiments on rats at the University of Sydney during the past year – and move to Kentucky in the US.