Recent reports of a $6 billion energy bill for the legal cannabis industry are misleading and incorrect.

It was only a matter of time before a lawsuit came about after Seattle’s Liquor and Cannabis Board sent out 14 day notices to long-standing medical marijuana shops around the city. New laws will put a cap on the number of dispensaries in the city, leaving them with two choices – relocate or apply for a license and pray they are one of the lucky ones.

While many of the businesses that were able to likely got the heck-outta-dodge as quick as they could, others are not so fortunate. Those who were left with no choice but to apply for a license were promised that while there was no guarantee for a license that dispensaries which were established the longest ago and had the a good track record for paying taxes and fees would be taken into consideration first.

By now, most pro-cannabis activists are familiar with how marijuana went from being a legal plant used by our founding fathers and settlers moving west, to an illegal drug on the Schedule 1 list.

Not much different than today, early Americans used cannabis as medicine, and hemp for its numerous industrial applications such as clothing, wagon covers, rope and paper. George Washington was a hemp farmer after all; cannabis is deeply rooted in our country's history.

Does a marijuana-legalization initiative expected to be on the ballot in November allow cities and towns to ban adults from growing their own marijuana?

Under the initiative, adults 21 and older could grow up to six plants, with a 12-plant-per-household maximum.

Ryan Hurley, a lawyer for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Arizona, which is pushing the initiative, says cities cannot ban home growing.   

But lawyer Tom Dean, who supports the more permissive proposal offered by Arizonans for Mindful Regulation, claims the opposite:

The Montana Supreme Court on Thursday upheld almost all of the GOP-controlled Legislature's 2011 gutting of the state's medical marijuana law.

The high court, in a 6-1 decision, ruled that the restrictions placed on medical marijuana by the Montana Legislature in 2011 are a "rational response" to the rapid growth in medical marijuana patients from 2008 to 2010, reports Mike Dennison at MTN News. Never mind that the stuff actually works, unlike most harsh, toxic Big Pharma products; that just couldn't be why the program was so popular, now could it?

Moving from Schedule I to Schedule II doesn't go far enough towards legalization.

Managing risk and understanding industry dynamics

It’s difficult to speculate on the dollars that exchange hands in the underground marijuana sales market. If Colorado is any indication, however, bringing those transactions above ground and making them legal can inject unprecedented revenue into the pockets of governments, businesses, and individuals.

The Colorado Department of Revenue reports that licensed and regulated marijuana stores in the state sold $996,184,788 worth of recreational and medical cannabis in 2015.

The authorities have insisted they do not want to attract marijuana tourists, a subject for which the country has gained international fame in recent years.

The growing interest of international companies to settle in Uruguay to produce and export marijuana for medical use could lead to create a "small development center," said an official.

"Several international companies have shown interest in settling in Uruguay to produce and export medical marijuana," the secretary general of the National Drug Board, Milton Romani said in an interview with AFP.

"This is not what he had intended and can mean a small center of development for the country," he added.

CBE caught up with Scott Denholm, Executive Director at Metrc, Franwell Corporation’s Marijuana Business Unit that supplies Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tracking technology to its two state clients, the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement division (MED), and soon to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) and its licensees.

He was on a month-long tour providing small group training sessions for Oregon Liquor Control Commission licensees throughout February 2016 when we tracked him down.

In a groundbreaking exhibition rich with opportunities for public input and dialogue about the uses and evolving attitudes about marijuana, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) will open Altered State: Marijuana in California, the first-ever museum exhibition to focus on the topic, April 16, 2016, in its Great Hall. Set against the backdrop of a likely California ballot measure in 2016 to legalize marijuana’s recreational use, the exhibition features artwork, political documents and posters, scientific displays, and interactive and multimedia exhibits all meant to provoke questions and conversations about the provocative plant.