Former Hawthorne California mayor Chris Brown plays matchmaker between small cities looking for new tax revenue and cannabis companies that want to do business there. With recreational marijuana legalization looming on California’s November ballot, those opportunities are about to increase significantly.

The burgeoning cannabis industry continues to face challenges accessing banks, experts said last month during the 23rd annual Hemp Industries Association (HIA) conference in Colorado—the U.S. birthplace of legal recreational marijuana.

Hezekiah Allen is a third-generation marijuana farmer in this Northern California county, where the cool coastal fog pours off the Pacific Ocean, coaxing pot plants to heights of 20 feet.

The executive director of the California Growers Association trade group, Allen has long sought an end to what he calls "prohibition" and has looked forward to a day when he and the thousands of pot farmers here would no longer be outlaws.

But he said he can't bring himself to vote for Proposition 64, a referendum on California's November ballot that would legalize cultivation, sale and recreational use of marijuana.

While pot purveyors might seem to be likely Prop. 64 supporters, Allen's ambivalence is widespread within the industry.

Duby allows users to create content, or "Dubys," which they pass to the people closest to them.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that cannabis is rapidly becoming a multi-billion dollar industry—in spite of existing regulations. To learn more about the companies fueling this growth, we’ve done a series of profiles of startups, including Strainz, Eaze and Dixie. 

The first presidential debate may have been a disaster for Donald Trump, but it was something of a godsend for fans of Saturday Night Live.

Debuting its 42nd season last night, SNL featured a cold open with Alec Baldwin as Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton parodying the caricatures that came through to 100 million viewers in real time this past Monday.

With Gov. Christie's surprising reversal on expanding the medical marijuana program comes a new batch of very different bills that would allow recreational cannabis in New Jersey.

Christie is not likely to change his strong opposition to legalization, even though he signed a bill last month allowing patients with post-traumatic stress syndrome to obtain cannabis. It was the first time a mental-health condition was added to the list of qualifying ailments.

But lawmakers say three legalization bills introduced this year would get discussions started, in anticipation of Christie's term ending in 2018.

Here are three landscaping and garden supply companies that stand to benefit big time from legal weed.

Some experts say that if you can growth a healthy rosebush, you can grow a healthy marijuana plant. But it'll be a long time before 1-800-Flowers (FLWS) starts delivering marijuana to your front door.

From a fiscal perspective, legalizing pot seems like a win-win scenario for cities. In theory, marijuana sales tax revenue can fill gaps in the budget, while police and prosecutors spend less time and money going after residents for marijuana possession.

But Toronto city council might want to hold off on planning a spending spree — because legal marijuana costs money, too.

In Denver, the capital of a state where recreational pot sales have been legal for almost three years, much of the tax revenue from marijuana gets spent regulating the very industry that generated it.

The federal government has not experienced the same increase in support for legalization as the American people.

Earlier this week, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) released its 2016 congressional scorecard, which assigns a letter grade for federally elected officials based on their stances on legalization.

In order to receive an “A,” the official must have “publicly declared his or her support for the legalization and regulation of marijuana for adults.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration has never reported a single overdose caused by marijuana use, but Chelsea Clinton was apparently unaware of that fact when she recently told an audience in Ohio that people have “died” after using marijuana during a speaking engagement. A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s daughter said the presidential candidate’s only child “misspoke” on the marijuana facts, according to The Washington Post.