With nine states poised to legalize cannabis next month, an increasing number of our clients are seeking help on taking their cannabis business national. They want to know what it will take to cross states with their cannabis cultivation centers, their cannabis retail storefronts or even just with their brand names. If you too are looking to present your cannabis business on a national stage, you need to consider the following seven things:

Comedian, musician and pot activist Tommy Chong says he intends to keep "priming the pump" until marijuana is legalized across the United States and in Canada.

Chong, 78, said the introduction of legislation promised for next spring to legalize recreational marijuana in Canada could set an example for the United States, where a state-by-state approach isn't ideal.

Chong, who is scheduled to appear Thursday at the two-day International Cannabis Business Conference in Vancouver, said he hopes the next American president will legalize pot throughout the U.S. so states can rake in millions of dollars from taxing the drug.

California and five other states will vote on whether to legalize recreational marijuana this November. In addition, Arkansas and Florida will vote on whether to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. 

Marijuana usage is on the rise. 

Consider that over the last 30 days, the S&P 500 has fallen 2.5% from 2,186.5 to 2133. Yet over that same period, the North American Marijuana Index increased 42%. Investors might want to add marijuana stocks to their portfolios. 

NFL players are three times as prone to abusing opioid pain medications due the multiple injuries typically sustained during a career in professional football. Because of this, many are now looking to cannabis as a replacement for dangerously addictive pharmaceutical painkillers.

The Gridiron Cannabis Coalition (GCC), a group consisting primarily of former and current NFL athletes, is helping to fund research into the use of cannabis oil as an alternative to opioid painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin.

The research is being conducted under the guidance of Constance Finley, founder and CEO of Constance Therapeutics, who said:

America has a long and storied history with marijuana. Once grown by American colonists to make hemp rope, by 1970, it was classified as a Schedule 1 narcotic. Possession of it was — and is — a federal crime, despite the fact that in recent years 25 states have legalized medical marijuana and four states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for recreational use.

Author John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, traces the history of America's laws and attitudes toward cannabis in his new book, Marijuana: A Short History. He tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies that the recent shift in public policy is, in part, a recognition of the drug's medicinal value, which became apparent in San Francisco during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

Here is an infographic that visualizes key data points from my previous article on clinical trials of medical cananbis. Want more information? See here for my full analysis of clinical trials of medical cannabis from clinicaltrials.gov.

Key points:

The Times They Are A-Changin’. According to the Pew Research Center, a decade ago 32% of adult American favored and 60% opposed legalizing marijuana. Now, the numbers have basically flipped, with 57% in favor and 37% opposed, based on a survey of 1,201 U.S. adults conducted this past August by Pew. Pew, that’s quite a change.

Here’s how support for marijuana legalization has gotten higher over time:

Arizona’s cannabis-legalization measure, Proposition 205, has faced outspoken opposition from a number of forces. The most visible is Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, an anti-legalization group led by a pair of tough-on-crime prosecutors, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.

Earnings season is starting to heat up and so far, it has been unimpressive at best. Companies continue to cite weakness as a result of weaker global demand and a stronger dollar, and we expect this to be a theme of this earnings season.

The combination of weak earnings, slowing demand, and poor economic data, will create a great opportunity for investor to buy quality companies at a discount…but you need to know where to look.

The markets are trading lower this morning after China registered its steepest monthly drop in its exports since February, with a 10% year-on-year contraction compared with expectations for a 3.3% decline.

Although we expect this trend to continue, we want to highlight stocks that are monitoring for a buy opportunity on further weakness.

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A molecular information company called Medicinal Genomics (MCG) has partnered with 12 cannabis processors and cultivators to develop genomics-based safety and quality standards, and they are using the bitcoin blockchain to track DNA sequencing cannabis strains.

Inconsistent Strains Pose Challenge