Investors, retailers, farmers and even delivery start-ups are cashing in on America's profitable new industry.

Marijuana has come a long way. In just a few years, the drug has gone from being banned across the US to being legalised not only for medical use, but recreational purposes too.

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215 – the first legislation legalising marijuana for medicinal purposes at state level. Since then, 25 US states have relaxed laws on medical cannabis use, with several – Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia – allowing recreational use.

It plans to give over half a million to nonprofits campaigning for this change.

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps wants to see laws legalizing marijuana get puff-puff passed. 

The endearingly quirky organic soap-maker said Monday it plans to donate $660,000 to two nonprofit groups ― New Approach and the Marijuana Policy Project ― campaigning for legal weed in California, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona and Nevada. In November, all five states are set to vote on ballot measures that could make recreational marijuana use legal. 

Oddly, the latest scientific survey and subsequent figures on the use of marijuana in the United States comes from an analysis documented in a UK journal called The Lancet, in which 596,500 Americans over the age of 18 took part in the survey. The survey was conducted over a two years period from 2012 through 2014, in which the Psychiatry division of the journal looked at why marijuana use is on the rise, and if the growing rate of ‘acceptance’ is due to the legalization in certain large states or if it is due to the growing perception of the relative safety of this substance. Some of the criteria and results are discussed below.

Cannabis testing labs across the United States are signing up for the Fall 2016 Emerald Test Inter-lab Comparison and Proficiency Test (ILC/PT), in an effort to advance quality assurance in the industry. Labs interested in joining the contest have until September 21 to register through the Emerald Test website.

“The Emerald Scientific PT ensures that the cannabis testing labs are performing their function to the best of their ability,” said Reggie Gaudino Ph.D., Vice President of Science, Genetics and Intellectual Property at Steep Hill Labs. “Any lab that isn't participating and exceeding the minimal passing requirements should be viewed as suspect. It's that important.”

Now that marijuana is legal in Colorado, more business owners with weed-themed places are getting comfortable with marketing their products to those who enjoy partaking in pot. Even local celebrities are getting in on the act, and it’s not just the dispensaries that are turning to marketing tactics.

BusinessDen, a Denver-based business news site, reported on a fast-casual chain that is sprouting up in areas of the city – Cheba Hut. The cannabis-centered sandwich shop appeals to those who aren’t afraid to let their leaf flags fly, and more and more, that segment of the population is growing.

Just days before Lift Cannabis Expo took place this past weekend in Vancouver, the event's primary sponsor lost its Instagram account and 11,000 followers along with it.

Lift Cannabis is a news and review site for medical cannabis that only does strain reviews for legal weed available through licensed producers. According to Lift, none of the photos posted to its Instagram feed depict recreational or black market weed.

Still, near the beginning of September, Lift communications director David Brown said he attempted to log into the company's Instagram account and found that the page had been deleted.

"When I logged in in the morning and opened up my Instagram account it just said 'this page is no longer available.'"

Two years ago, the city of Adelanto, a crumbling outpost in California’s Mojave desert, was facing a bleak future as it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and struggled with double-digit unemployment.

“We were about to vanish, to be incorporated into another city,” says councilman John “Bug” Woodard Jr. “The place was dying and in total despair.”

Today, however, the once-desolate town is firmly back on the map, having joined a handful of communities in California in embracing large-scale commercial cannabis cultivation—a move that smells of success as the state prepares to vote in November on legalizing the use of recreational marijuana.

There’s a new mobile game hitting the App Store, and it looks set to be YUUUUGE.

Basically a politically themed Doodle Jump on steroids, ‘Jrump’ is based in a dystopian 2017 where a Donald Trump-like character has already ‘Made Earth Great Again’ and invites users to build walls to help him get to space so he can wreak havoc up there too.

But it’s not as easy as it sounds - President Jrump has to face off against Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama along the way.

We've often heard professional athletes in the NBA, NFL and NHL say that marijuana's medicinal effects helped them maintain their game, by providing relief for their aches and pains.

Cannabis stocks continue to rally and with the presidential election right around the corner, we do not expect this trend to end anytime soon.

That being said, we do not recommend diving head first into the industry as the market is nothing like it was in early 2014 when you could just throw a dart at a dartboard and most likely profit off of any cannabis stock it landed on. 

2014 Was Just the Beginning