As many as 10 states could join Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Washington, D.C., Oregon and legalize recreational marijuana this year. On Tuesday, a New Jersey lawmaker will hold a press conference Tuesday to discuss how a similar law might work here. Still, it's a safe bet legalization remains a long way off in the Garden State.

Here's a look at what likely needs to happen for New Jersey to legalize recreational pot.

1. Elect a new governor.

Last year Jake Heimark launched Plus Gum, a Palo Alto-based company with 10 employees that makes cannabis-infused chewing gum. The gum costs $15 for a pack of six pieces, each containing 25 milligrams of THC and just five calories. After working at Facebook FB -2.28% and payment platform company Gumroad, he was searching for a startup opportunity in a fast-growing field.

It’s quite remarkable how many ‘success’ stories are out there when it comes to using cannabis for medicinal purposes. If we consider cancer, for example, many people have used or incorporated medical marijuana into their healing routine. One great example is Mykala Comstock. Mykala had T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a very rare and aggressive form of childhood leukaemia. In July of 2012, doctors discovered a basketball-sized mass of lymphoblasts in her chest. Her mass was so large that she was not able to be sedated for risk of death from the pressure on her esophagus and heart. Chemotherapy wasn’t working, so it got to the point where doctors strongly recommended a bone marrow transplant along with full body radiation.

The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on a bill, HB 1422, that seeks to massively increase fines for marijuana possession.

Although HB 1422 downgrades 30 grams of marijuana or less from a misdemeanor to a summary, those convicted will live with the burden of a criminal record.

Legislators, marijuana reform advocates and potential medical marijuana patients will speak in Harrisburg about the problems with HB 1422 tomorrow. The press conference takes place in the East Wing Rotunda at 2:00PM on 6/14.

Chris Goldstein is on the Board of Directors at PhillyNORML and has extensively researched marijuana arrest statistics in Pa.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Nick Kriaris, owner of Encanto Green Cross medical-marijuana dispensary in Phoenix, and his brother, Chris, tried to open an account at Bank of America for their nonprofit business with $420 in cash.

The attempt at the bank branch at 3030 North Central Avenue was, to some extent, a stunt, from the pot-culture-inspired amount of the initial deposit to the dispensary employee videotaping his bosses. They knew the odds of success were minimal, if not zero.

But if the bank agreed to take the medical-marijuana retail shop's money, it would have been something of a minor historical moment. Although dozens of dispensaries are authorized to operate in the state, no bank will deal openly with them -- yet.

Marijuana Central has seen incredible growth in the past six months and now receives over 300,000 unique visitors per month. Company founder Korban Stone says, “We have not done any marketing yet, but we continue to see the number of visitors rise.” He plans to begin advertising and marketing the site and last month the website began to monetize by accepting listings from marijuana related companies. “We’ll be investing our revenues into driving more traffic to the site. I don’t see this growth trend ending any time soon as this is just the beginning of this industry and we’re positioned to grow with it.”

Colorado State University-Pueblo is closer to being able to conduct research on marijuana.

On Monday, Pueblo County officials agreed to provide up to $270,000 in funding to research the impact of marijuana on the community and the efficacy of treating various issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder, with medical marijuana.

Also, a new law calls for $900,000 from Colorado’s Marijuana Tax Cash Fund to be given to CSU-Pueblo for cannabis research. Governor John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 191 on Monday, June 6.

"This is a momentous day," the statement quoted Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace as saying. “I am incredibly excited to have real quantifiable data about how cannabis is affecting our community."

"Everything about his reaction was very small and unhelpful," The New York Times' Frank Bruni argued.

The panelists on MSNBC’s Morning Joe were no happier than their colleagues at TODAY about Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory response to the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub over the weekend. 

Trump insisted to TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie that he was merely calling attention to the congratulations he had received after the terror attack for his perspicuity in having predicted it when he tweeted the following:

Neil Young has a simple message for Donald Trump: "F**k you."

It's the latest skirmish between the Canadian rocker and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. After Trump used "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" at his campaign launch last year, Young condemned the candidate and a spokesperson said he "was not authorized" to use the song, according to Rolling Stone.

Colorado's legal cannabis sales continue to smash records, mainly because of the increased interest in concentrates and edibles. Dispensary sales in April surged by 58 percent over the same period previous year, according to Boulder-based BDS Analytics.

What's more, the monthly sales of $117-million beat last December's record $101-million in sales.