Zoned Properties, a medical-marijuana real-estate company, is developing what it bills as the state's first "medical-marijuana business park."

The Scottsdale-based company announced on March 17 that it had signed a deal to lease 25,000 square feet of space in a building near 52nd Street and University Drive in Tempe, with an option to lease 40,000 square feet. As a press release notes, Zoned Properties lobbied Tempe successfully to change its zoning requirements a few months ago, allowing 25,000-square-foot medical-marijuana cultivation and food-processing facilities.

Okay so there’s been a lot of talk about Americans wanting to move to Canada if Donald Trump becomes president. Like, a lot. But did anyone think to ask how Canada feels about that? Well, Ellen DeGeneres did.

When you think of cannabis and innovation, Israel likely doesn't come to mind. But as we've recently highlighted here on MERRY JANE, Israel is advanced when it comes to cannabis-related exploration.

Last week marked the second annual CannaTech conference, an international summit dedicated to accelerating cannabis innovation. 

The three-day event held in the capital city of Tel Avi featured courses on Israel's so-called 'Green Rush' including entrepreneurship, best practices in growing and research on the region's unique relationship with cannabis. It’s easy to see Israel quickly becoming a hub for the global cannabis community - and rightfully so.

If other products can be rebranded, why not marijuana? After all, it's an industry that's expected to reach $44 billion in sales by 2020.

Unfortunately, advertisers are reluctant to be associated with the pot business because of its murky legal status. It doesn't help that the public's negative perception of the product has been shaped over the decades by everything from the 1930s' anti-pot movie "Reefer Madness" to the late Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign during the 1980s as well as more recent efforts by opponents of legalization.

Shona Banda is a longtime cannabis activist in Kansas that suffers from Crohn’s disease. Cannabis has been proven to be very effective at treating Crohn’s disease, and as such, Ms. Banda consumed cannabis oil as part of her treatment regimen, and did so responsibly. Unfortunately cannabis is illegal in Kansas, even for medical purposes. Kansas’ harsh marijuana laws have torn Shona’s life apart.

Given that 39.6% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, cancers affects nearly everyone. Chances are, someone close to you has battled cancer.

As multiple campaigns to collect signatures necessary to get a measure to legalize the use of recreational marijuana on the 2016 ballot pushes on, the demand for medical marijuana keeps growing.

In 2008, Michigan voters approved making the use of marijuana for medical purposes legal in the state.

Since then many local communities across Michigan have enacted measures that have both lessened the criminalization of the drug, while others have gone in the opposite direction to slow or block the availability of it.

But through all that, the number of patients who have registered to receive marijuana — as well as the number of caregivers licensed to provide — has grown.

Does your state make the list?

Which are the marijuana-friendliest states in the nation? Where would a pot person want to buy a home and settle down?

The online national real estate search site Estately has taken a crack at answering those burning questions. The site's blog's Ultimate Lists cranks out all sorts of creative comparative data—cities with the most romantic homes for sale, states with the most pizza—and now it's done the same with weed. 

Mardi Gras will never be the same again.

Under current law in New Orleans, if you've never been busted with pot before, police can use their discretion on whether or not to take you to jail or issue a summons.

But, if you're a repeat offender it's handcuffs and lock up for you.

Beginning  June 21, all of this will change as the penalty for being caught with bud in the Big Easy has greatly diminished.

If Massachusetts voters approve an expected ballot measure this fall legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the state could become home to a $1.1 billion cannabis industry by 2020, according to a report.

The research, released last week by the marijuana data and investment firms ArcView Market Research and New Frontier , predicts the advent of legal marijuana would make Massachusetts a thriving hub of “canna-tourism” in the Northeast, depending on whether neighboring states also legalize marijuana.