The marijuana business in the U.S. is growing like a weed.

Nationwide, legal sales of marijuana reached $5.7 billion in 2015, up from $4.6 billion the previous year, according to a report from ArcView Market Research. For 2016, the market is projected to grow to $7.1 billion. And by 2020, ArcView says, sales of legal marijuana in the U.S. could top $22 billion.

As it stands now, about two-thirds of America’s marijuana crop — the legal and illegal kinds — is grown outdoors, according to Mother Jones magazine.

It's legal to possess, grow and buy marijuana in Oregon, but state clean air laws and local rules have put a damper on public festivals featuring giveaways and consumption.

The Oregon Cannabis Association has found a way to host a summer fair where members of the public -- as long as they're 21 and older -- can take home free samples. 

The Summer Fair, featuring dozens of Oregon producers and processors, will be held July 24 at the North Warehouse in Portland. 

Michigan will begin a one-year pilot test program later this year that allows trained state police officers to take roadside saliva drug tests from drivers whom they suspect are driving while impaired from drugs.

Five counties, to be chosen by state police from areas where the most drug-related arrests and impaired driving accidents have occurred, will begin the program sometime after this summer, state police officials announced Wednesday.

The Michigan program is expected to be watched by other states amid rising concern among  lawmakers and law enforcement on how to effectively police those who  drive while using  drugs  ( policies for drunk driving are well-established).

When legal pot shops first opened up in America, there wasn’t a ton of thought given to retail design and aesthetics. Understandably so: Compared to the old pot-buying experience—stealthily purchasing a dime bag on the street corner or in the basement of your friendly neighborhood drug dealer—any store could look fancy and inviting.

Texans who are arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana shouldn’t be locked out of jobs and haunted by minor lapses in judgment for the rest of their lives, business and legislative leaders say.

As acceptance of marijuana — medical and otherwise — grows nationally and in Texas, members of both major political parties in the Legislature have staked out positions supporting the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana. The proposed change could be beneficial for Texas businesses, proponents have said.

Illinois’ medical marijuana pilot program had nearly 8,000 approved patients in early July, up from 4,000 patients at the beginning of the year according to the state Department of Public Health.

Lawmakers approved the pilot program in 2013 but legal cannabis sales to patients began Nov. 9, 2015.

Joe Friedman, co-owner of PDI Medical, a cannabis dispensary in suburban Buffalo Grove, said restrictive legislation slowed the growth of the program. “I think the program has been under a lot of pressure because we haven’t been able to approve new conditions, we definitely need to educate more patients and more doctors, but it’s a slow process.”

Medical marijuana experts say Illinois’ program needs 120,000 patients to support the industry.

The billion-dollar medical marijuana and recreational marijuana industry is hooked on photo sharing site Instagram — but the Facebook-owned social network detests the smell of pot.

Last week, several major cannabis brands were left scrambling after Instagram conducted yet another purge of pot-related Instagram accounts. The company’s terms of service preclude posting illegal drugs and paraphernalia, and cannabis’ quasi-legality leaves its brands open to attack.

Read the rest of the article here.

Florida’s first legal harvest of marijuana is stored in multiple vacuum-packed, 441-gram bags in a freezer on the outskirts of Tallahassee.

Each is the result of months of careful growing, monitoring, coaxing, and finally cultivating, scores of plants in a hidden farm overseen by horticulturalists and protected by armed guards.

This is one of two production facilities operated by Surterra Therapeutics, the first of six companies to win state approval to grow and harvest medical marijuana for the seriously ill and dying.

It is part pharmaceutical production facility, part grow house. Its operators say it is just the start of new business they hope will bring high-quality, and formerly unavailable, medicine to patients who need it the most.

At California Cannabis CPA, one of our main areas of focus is compliance with local, state and federal statutory guidelines.  We often get numerous questions fielded regarding record keeping requirements for Marijuana related business owners.  We do hope this post is able to answer your questions.

With interest in topics like “marijuana” and “cannabis” hitting all-time high levels according to Google Trends, nine states in the U.S. will vote on marijuana measures in the world’s most important general election Nov. 8, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Voters in California, Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona, and Arkansas will definitely be casting a ballot to affect cannabis policy in their state. Voters in Missouri, Montana, and North Dakota have submitted signatures to place marijuana proposals on the ballot, while Oklahoma has cleared to circulate a last-minute measure.