Benzinga recently had the chance to chat with Dr. Bryan Doner, CEO and medical director of Compassionate Certification Centers, a firm that’s merging education and entrepreneurship in the cannabis industry.

New Mexico’s medical cannabis industry has grown into a powerful magnet for money and customers.

Customers, sales revenue and dispensaries have exploded the past year with a total of more than 40,000 people now signed up to purchase medical marijuana.

Since Jan. 1, some 8,000 New Mexicans obtained a state-issued license that allows them to legally buy pot, pushing patient enrollment to 40,432 in April. With the recent growth spurt, enrollment has increased by 84 percent since March 2016.

The number of dispensaries increased from 36 in January 2016 to 56 in April, with new dispensaries popping up in smaller cities, such as Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis, Carlsbad, Artesia and Taos.

And that has helped fuel an impressive sales growth over the past year.

One Florida retailer is selling buds for vaporizer use only - but those same flowers could just as easily be rolled up and smoked.

“First-mover advantage.” Why Canadian weed producers will dominate the global marijuana market.

In marketing strategy, there’s a term called “first-mover advantage”. It’s when a few key players in a particular industry gain an advantage because they entered into the marketplace first. These companies are able to establish strong brand recognition, shore up the best sources of funding, and build a loyal customer base simply because there aren’t any competitors in the way during their first few years of operation. 

Farmers in the historic wine country of California are looking to a new crop to bring in larger profits. Cannabis, like wine, needs clean soil and air to grow the lush, beautiful, buds that every connoisseur has come to know and love. Luckily, the grape fields of Northern California provide the ideal atmosphere for cannabis farming. Not only are farmers clearing space to make room for more of the new-age cash crop, they’re transforming their mindset and skills to help cultivate the plant that might be their largest earner yet.

The phrase “no news is good news” should mean an assurance that a situation is not dramatically worsening, and perhaps even improving. For the first 100 days of Trump’s Presidency, the lack of news surrounding medical cannabis has been, for the most part, good news for the status quo. However, this is not a comfort to medical cannabis patients for whom behind the scenes actions could upend, disrupt, or delay access to their medication.

As we have already seen from this Administration, priorities can abruptly shift at any time. One day Attorney General Sessions is renewing the “war on drugs”, the next there are rumors of him being replaced.

Nevada’s recreational marijuana industry is expected to bring $1.1 billion in revenue and up to 40,000 jobs over the next eight years, per a 2016 study from Las Vegas-based RCG Economics. While regulations are still being hashed out by the Legislature and Department of Taxation, marijuana businesses foresee potential employees flocking.

What employers look for

Four local marijuana business owners were surveyed, saying that while the new recreational industry will bring more jobs, demand for those openings at dispensaries, production facilities and testing labs is extremely high.

A state lawmaker on Monday is scheduled to unveil legislation that would legalize, regulate, and tax recreational marijuana in New Jersey. 

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) will formally announce the Democratic-sponsored measure noon at Monday at a news conference at the Statehouse in Trenton.

Medical marijuana is already legal in the state. But if this bill becomes law, New Jersey would become the ninth state to legalize pot -- joining Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

It is time for politicians to put to rest the myth that cannabis is a gateway to the use of other controlled substances — a theory that is neither supported by modern science or empirical data. 

When the state of Ohio goes through the process of selecting the 24 growers who will cultivate cannabis for medicinal uses, the selectors will not know the identities of the applicants. The state wants to ensure there is no pressure, political or otherwise, in the granting of permits.

That’s how it should be, given the very lucrative nature of this flourishing industry nationwide.

In 2016, legal marijuana sales – for medicinal and recreational purposes – topped $6.7 billion, a 24 percent increase over 2015.

There are 26 states that allow the use of cannabis. Ohio joined the list in 2016 when Republican Gov. John R. Kasich signed into law a bill passed by the GOP-controlled General Assembly.