From backroom to storefront, cannabis is leveraging the advances in data analytics driven by other industries.

If you're new to retail cannabis, chances are you're new to business in general. So the whole meaning and value of analytics may elude you. If analytics are new new to you, you had better get a grasp of what data means to you and your business potential.

Let's explore the effect of analytics on the cannabis economy.

The Arizona Department of Health Services awarded preliminary licenses for 31 new medical-marijuana dispensaries last week, creating a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs and (soon) more shopping choices for patients.

Most of the 747 applicants lost out on their hoped-for pot of green gold — not to mention the nonrefundable $4,000 of their $5,000 application fee. But the lucky few whose applications were accepted could make a fortune in the industry.

"It's fantastic," said a woman who is part of a group that won a license. "We did an enormous amount of work to get to this point."

Administrative law judge Elizabeth W. McArthur found the use of a rented jet helicopter and a mad dash to the Department of Health's headquarters are not necessarily rules violations.

The ruling came Monday in a challenge to the Department of Health awarding a marijuana license to Knox Nursery of Winter Garden.

“Maybe it was important to them,” she said, upholding a Department of Health motion to exclude incidents involving Knox’s delivery of a $5 million bond receipt.

When Lisa Mastramico needed relief for her ailing tabby, Little Kitty, she turned to an unlikely source: marijuana.

At 12 years old, the cat had arthritis. For a long while she spent her days hiding in a closet, where Ms. Mastramico had built her a bed of plush blankets. After trying various supplements that proved ineffectual, she went to a meeting for Women Grow, an industry group for cannabis entrepreneurs.

She was not sold on the idea right away. “My concern was that it’s not my place to get my cat high,” said Ms. Mastramico, the director of a public access television network in Long Beach, Calif.

A California lawmaker is pushing to get rid of the Drug Enforcement Administration's pot eradication program, arguing it's fiscally irresponsible to spend millions burning up marijuana plants at a time when several states are legalizing the drug. 

Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat, proposed an amendment to a fiscal 2016 spending bill that would cut the DEA's $18 million budget for the program in half. It would redirect $9 million to fund programs that help children who are victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

“Next year, I will bring another amendment to eliminate the program completely,” Lieu said in a written statement. 

As many as five states could approve its recreational use this November, potentially signaling a point of no return for legalized pot.

Recreational marijuana users can now legally light up a joint in states representing about 5 percent of the U.S. population. By the time Americans wake up on November 9, that percentage could be swelling to more than one-quarter.

Cannabis and music have always gone hand in hand, but even since Colorado legalized recreational pot use in 2012 with Amendment 64, it is still illegal to consume cannabis in public and in private businesses that are accessed by the public – including concert venues. 

This November, voters in Denver will have the opportunity to address the issue with Ballot Question 300, which, if passed, will create a pilot program that allows limited social cannabis consumption in permitted private establishments.

Two government departments seem to disagree about whether cannabis products have a medicinal value.

Vendors of a product called cannabidiol, or CBD, an oil derived from cannabis plants, have received letters from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), a Department of Health-sponsored agency, saying that they have to stop selling it in the next 28 days, because it has been designated as a medicine.

That means that they will probably have to undergo clinical trials, and demonstrate that they are safe and effective treatments for specific conditions, before they can be sold.

If you see a funny video, comic, or article, send it our way and we may feature it on the next Friday Funny! Have a great weekend, happy Canadian Thanksgiving, and happy Columbus Day to our American friends! We'll be back on Tuesday.

Like gay marriage, climate change and a host of other issues before it, Hillary Clinton’s painfully slow evolution on marijuana legalization has again left the Democratic presidential nominee behind the curve in her own party — and her position represents a squandered opportunity to potentially win over millennials.

Polls have shown that about two-thirds of Democratic voters support legalizing pot, and the party, largely due to Sen. Bernard Sanders bringing the issue to prominence in his White House bid, called for a pathway to legalization in its platform last summer.