Marijuana cultivators have a lot to grapple with on a daily basis, from trying to prevent pests that could wipe out their entire crop to constantly calibrating climate control and lighting systems for optimum yields.

So it’s easy to get bogged down in the details without looking at bigger-picture issues that could help fuel growth down the road.

Marijuana Business Daily spoke with several industry experts about how to position a grow for expansion, be it in your local market or in new states that are starting medical marijuana and recreational cannabis programs. Here are some of their top tips.

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Massachusetts health officials are streamlining the way the state issues licenses under its Medical Marijuana Dispensary program to prevent delays in treatment for those who qualify for it.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel on Wednesday said the licensing system has been "a confusing, overly lengthy process that has delayed appropriate patients from getting access" to medically needed marijuana.

Under the revised process, the dispensaries will be licensed in a format similar to pharmacies and other health care facilities, she said. The process will set high safety and suitability standards for dispensaries to meet, particularly when it comes to security and background checks, she added.

The California State Water Board is now issuing historic best-practices guidelines for cannabis cultivation

The State of California is taking historic steps to protect watersheds amid the devastating ongoing drought, combined with an uptick in cannabis cultivation along remote, sensitive watersheds.

Strict regulatory controls must be part of any Pennsylvania medical marijuana law to ensure that it does not compound the problem of recreational marijuana use, advocates for prosecutors and police told state lawmakers Wednesday.

Spokesmen for three law-enforcement groups registered their mutual concern in testimony at a fact-finding hearing before the House Health and Judiciary committees that focused on of the issues of law enforcement, drug treatment and regulatory services.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, speaking for the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said legislators must ensure that the right people are prescribing, distributing and receiving any medical form of marijuana.

WICHITA, Kan. — A day after Wichita voters approved a ballot measure that would reduce the penalties for small amounts of marijuana, the city asked a court to rule on the legality of the proposed changes, which had already drawn a warning from the state attorney general.

The city filed its petition for a “declaratory judgment” on Wednesday in Sedgwick County District Court in the wake of an election in which 54 percent of voters backed the referendum imposing no more than a $50 fine for first-time possession of a small amount of pot. State law deems it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

A Colorado biotech company plans to open a large-scale industrial hemp processing facility that will take the crop’s would-be waste — namely hemp stalks — and make it useful.

Brett Levin via Flickr The chances of a successful marijuana-legalization initiative in Arizona for 2016 appear to have diminished due to fighting among two competing political groups.

As we reported on March 27, the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona was surprised by the sudden launch of a competing 2016 campaign by their chairperson, Dr. Gina Berman.

A leaked online survey shows that a coalition of Arizona medical-marijuana dispensaries are backing Berman's group.

The Senate health committee decided to delay action on a GOP-backed medical marijuana bill for Tennessee.

A Republican-backed effort to legalize marijuana for limited medicinal purposes in Tennessee is officially dead for the year.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee decided to delay action on the proposal from Nashville GOP Sen. Steve Dickerson until 2016.

Chairman Rusty Crowe said there wasn't enough time to fully discuss the pros and cons of the bill. He said he'd create a summer study commission to look at the bill.

Dickerson didn't seem happy with the decision, but said he deferred to Crowe's opinion.

"I believe this is a conservative bill; it's equally based in compassion and science," Dickerson, an anesthesiologist, told the committee.

The cartels are still smuggling harder drugs but advocates point out the success of legalization in cutting illegal trade

In the midst of this seething mountain capital, Mexico’s security ministry houses a bizarre museum — a collection of what the army seizes from drug traffickers. The Museo de Enervantes, often referred to as the Narco Museum, has drug samples themselves (including the rare black cocaine), diamond-studded guns, gold-coated cell phones, rocket-propelled grenades and medals that cartels award their most productive smugglers. It also shows off the narcos’ ingenuity for getting their drugs into the United States, including “trap cars” with secret compartments, catapults to hurl packages over the border fence and even false buttocks, to hide drugs in.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon is racing the clock when it comes to setting the rules for retail pot sales.

Now, some lawmakers are considering letting medical marijuana dispensaries sell recreational weed starting July 1, 2015 when Measure 91 goes into effect.