RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A federal indictment accuses a Johnston County attorney and others of growing marijuana for profit at houses in Orange County and concealing the profits.

The indictment said Joseph Lee Levinson, who runs a law office in Benson, received cash and drugs and used his law office to help the operation.

According to the indictment, Aubrey Manasseh Pruitt, Dustin Garrett Fisher and Jotham Walker Pruitt operated a marijuana “grow” business in Orange County from December 2005 to around December 2010. The indictment lists six different locations that were used to grow marijuana indoors.

The indictment said Fisher grew the marijuana in houses obtained by Levinson and Jotham Pruitt.

In July 2014, five companies were awarded licenses by the New York State Health Department to grow and sell marijuana in the state, and in New York City. One of them, a Minneapolis-based company called Vireo Health, which produces “pharmaceutical-grade cannabis-derived medicine,” announced Wednesday that all of its products had received kosher certification from the Orthodox Union.

Like many commuters in Denver’s city core, Marty Otañez can’t assist but smell the pot smoke as he rides to work along the Cherry Creek bike course downtown.

“A couple years ago it was just under the bridge at Colfax and Speer,” Otañez stated of the clouds emanating from public tokers. “Now it’s practically every 100 meters.”

Increased pot smoke swirling around city streets and parks is among the most recognizable effects of Modification 64– which legislated the leisure use and sale of marijuana in Colorado– specifically since public consumption remains illegal.

California Assemblyman Rob Bonta played a critical function in pressing through policies on the state’s medical marijuana industry, which will significantly change the nation’s biggest MMJ market.

Bonta was a main sponsor of Assembly Costs 266, among three procedures known jointly as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Security Act (MMRSA).

As a regular segment on my live weekday marijuana news/talk-radio program on CannabisRadio.com, I dig deep into the Drug War Data Mines to find the surveys, polls, studies, and statistics to help you make the case to end adult marijuana prohibition nationwide. Here are the ten most important marijuana data topics I’ve covered in 2015:

1 in 5 Coloradoans Tried Legal Marijuana Last Year [2015-02-24 Tue] – 2015 marked the first year we could see a full year’s worth of data coming in from the first two states to legalize marijuana. Figures from Colorado show that despite almost 1 out of 5 Coloradoans having tried legal pot, the sky did not fall.

Federal authorities filed notices to seize 16 residential properties in Broward County after their owner was indicted for trafficking marijuana.

Frederick Robert Goldberg, aka Scott C. Bryant, aka Fredrick Brill, was charged on Nov. 9 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Both counts are felonies.

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According to the “United States Organic Food Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018” report, growth for the United States organic food market is likely going to continue until 2018 with a CAGR of 14% on the industry. Also, the report states that the Western side of the United states is driving the organic food market revenue and increasing awareness.

Some small-scale Mexican marijuana farmers say a loosening of marijuana laws across the U.S. has increased competition from grows in the states and could put them out of business. The farmers used to earn $100 per kilogram for their illegal crops, but that has fallen to $30 per kilogram in the last four years, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

"I've always liked this business, producing marijuana," one 50-year-old farmer from the Mexican state of Sinaloa told the LA Times. This season’s crop will be his last, he said.

New Mexico will move one step closer to legalizing marijuana in the new year. A state representative has pre-filed a bill that would legalize marijuana and hemp in the state, Albuquerque’s KOB TV reported Tuesday, and he plans to introduce the bill during the Legislature’s next session in January.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill McCamley, would allow people age 21 and older to purchase and use pot legally. It would also legalize the production and sale of industrial hemp in New Mexico. Under the proposed legislation, the state would be permitted to regulate marijuana growers and distributors.

At this rate, I think it will have taken Florida longer than any other state to implement one, single, medical marijuana law. Since being signed into law in 2014 we’ve continuously hit one hold up after another – and just when it feels like we’re finally picking up momentum and getting somewhere, things come to a screeching halt.

After the five allotted nurseries were selected at the end of November it seemed that we may finally see patients getting relief early in 2016. Hopes for that might have been too high, however, because a total of 11 different companies have challenged the Department of Health’s ruling on the matter.