Rachael Speegle, 34, left a full-time job as a critical care nurse last year to work at an Albuquerque medical marijuana dispensary and growing operation started by her husband.

Speegle quickly discovered that people who came to the Verdes Foundation dispensary in Albuquerque had lots of questions that called for her nursing skills.

The first seven marijuana entrepreneurs on the Kenai Peninsula received their state approvals on Thursday and Friday.

The state Marijuana Control Board gave its stamp of approval last week to four standard cultivators and five limited cultivators on the peninsula. Two licenses were issued in Kasilof, two in the Nikiski area, one in Homer, one in Sterling and one just outside Soldotna. Two growers in Seward, Stony Creek Growers and Budding Alaska, were delayed because the board members still had questions for the applicants. The board will review those two again at its July 7 meeting.

More than a decade after he retired from practicing podiatry, Dave Feller said he might be inclined to get back into the workforce due to the many employment opportunities that will open up now that medical marijuana has been legalized in the state of Pennsylvania.

“I want to see what medical conditions are allowed to be treated with medical marijuana and if podiatry is one of them,” said Dr. Feller, 65, of Butler. “If people are in pain and this law will allow treatment of medical marijuana, this is another avenue to use other than opiates and anti-inflammatories.”

The way he sees it, the medical marijuana industry could not only provide an alternative when it comes to treating patients in pain, it could be a way to supplement his retirement income.

For years, Lisa Tollner, co-founder of the California marijuana edibles company Sensi Products, says she’s received calls and emails from customers reporting her cannabis-infused Sensi Chew caramels had helped alleviate pain, insomnia, nausea and other ailments. But Tollner wanted more.

“These people are telling me their stories, but with no real consistency,” said Tollner, who was interested in hard data on how her products worked, not shifting anecdotal evidence. “I need ways to prove our products’ efficacy.”

The police department in Portland, Oregon, is now offering people advice on where to buy marijuana. Seriously:

The marijuana industry is blossoming, and 2016 could wind up being its best year yet in a number of ways.

Marijuana keeps expanding despite federal inaction

Since California first approved Proposition 215 in 1996 to provide certain patients with medical marijuana on the basis of compassionate use, the marijuana industry has been trudging forward. Today, two dozen states have approved medical marijuana, while another four, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.

For Ralf-Rainer von Albedyhll and his start-up, new rules that allow small companies to sell stock through Kickstarter - like online offerings might have been the answer to a question that has dogged him for years: How do you find investors willing to back a company in the medical marijuana business?

He’d tried to convince professional investors, including members of an Oakland marijuana investor network group Arcview Group, but to no avail. So he turned to equity crowdfunding, a newly legal practice that allows start-ups to raise up to $1 million from the general public.

Many veterans who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have found relief from their symptoms in the form of cannabis. Although this treatment shows a lot of promise in dealing with a very complex and debilitating disorder, it would appear that the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Medical Center is not interested in sharing information about the subject with the people who could be helped most by it.

Tomorrow evening, June 14 at 6:30 p.m., at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Michael Sutton will lead a discussion on whether Californians should vote “yes” on an initiative this November that would legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana.

Following a resounding marijuana initiative defeat last November, this state seemingly defied the odds to become the 25th to legalize medical marijuana.

Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, but it's been growing by leaps and bounds at the state level. This has both industry enthusiasts and investors believing that we're on the cusp of witnessing a major expansion of the industry in 2016.