CHICAGO -- Late one Saturday night, Rob Sampson had a confrontation with his 15-year-old daughter about marijuana. But it was his daughter doing the confronting and it was Sampson defending the drug.

Sampson and his wife, after a long night of polishing his new company's applications to grow medical cannabis, returned to their suburban Chicago home to find their daughter waiting up. They hadn't yet told her their business plans.

"She said, 'What is going on?"' Sampson recalled. "'I know something's going on and you guys aren't telling me."'

SAN DIEGO, March 31, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Payout, Inc. (OTC Pink:GOHE), a leading provider of international electronic payment solutions, announced today that it has entered into a strategic relationship with CannaTrac™ Technology, Inc. (CannaTrac™) for the deployment of Global Payout's closed-loop marijuana industry payment platform. As announced on March 18, Global Payout has developed a closed-loop payment system that resolves the unique challenges present in the fast-growing medical cannabis and recreational cannabis industries by reducing the risks associated with cash transactions, and by solving the crucial payment and transaction execution issues currently plaguing the industry.

Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states. Nine more states—including Pennsylvania—have medical marijuana legislation pending. The legal marijuana industry is big and growing rapidly; it is projected to generate annual revenues of over $8 billion by 2019. Given this rapid growth, many entrepreneurs are exploring entering the market. These would-be marijuana growers, processors or distributors quickly learn, however, that the legal marijuana industry poses unusual challenges. Some of these challenges are discussed in this article.

Legal Marijuana is Illegal

No attention has been given to public-health education about marijuana.

A growing gap exists between how the early marijuana-legalization laws are rolling out in Washington state and what ought to be concurrent education campaigns to give marijuana consumers science-based information to make wise choices.

Initiative 502 earmarked new excise-tax revenues to the state Department of Health to pay for “medically and scientifically accurate information about the health and safety risks posed by marijuana use.”

The initiative also called for a marijuana public-health hotline. To be available statewide, the hotline is intended to provide treatment referrals, brief counseling and educational information about marijuana.

Cannabis entrepreneurs can now submit applications to take part in a mock investor pitch session at the Spring Marijuana Business Conference and Expo to be held in Chicago next month.

The deadline for applications to participate in the Marijuana Business Pitch Slam is April 10. The session will be held from 11 a.m. to noon on May 20 at the Chicago Hilton.

The five companies selected to present will deliver a short investment pitch in front of a live audience of industry professionals and a panel of experienced investors. The panel will then critique the presentations to provide insight into what investors look for when evaluating a pitch, and will select a winner for the “Best Pitch” award.

Sporting a pale pink helmet and flanked by her faithful German shepherd, 5-year-old Cora Vowell looks ready to hop on a tricycle, or maybe go barreling headfirst into a backyard football game.

But Cora cannot ride her bike or play sports.The helmet is part of her everyday outfit, protecting her head against the nine to 12 seizures that batter her body each day. Her German shepherd, Hulk, is a therapy dog, trained to alert Cora's parents when the seizures start.

Brought on by an accident more than a year ago, those seizures are a constant in the family's life — so frequent that her mother, Melissa Vowell, doesn't even break conversation as she swiftly reacts to one of her daughter's brief episodes, holding her close until it passes.

Public stock investors in the cannabis industry are largely relegated to the over-the-counter marketplace. This is much different from stocks trading on an exchange, and far less expensive for companies to access. Therefore many small, micro-capitalization companies choose to offer shares of their company through this market.

We are believers of free markets and access to efficient forms of capital; from that standpoint, we see OTC as a potential option for companies. However, regulators cannot keep up with the biggest scams, think Enron and Madoff, let alone effectively monitor the thousands of small companies. This gap in oversight creates opportunities for the ill-inclined to pounce, get rich and rob the everyday investor. We see this malfeasance all the time.

SEATTLE, April 4, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Many U.S. states are changing laws on cannabis products like cannabidiol oil extract, used to treat epilepsy patients, while Canada still only allows licensed marijuana growers to sell dried crop, and be that as it may, prohibit tinctures, edibles, and oils.

After declaring the U.S. attorney's enforcement of drug-free school zones arbitrary and not based on law, the owner of several medical marijuana dispensaries and recreational pot shops statewide has abandoned a dispensary he was developing near Colorado College, walking away from it just weeks before it was scheduled to open.

Dispensary owner Brian Ruden said Tuesday that he made the decision after federal officials told Side Streets in a March column that Ruden's Tree of Wellness II at 705 N. Nevada Ave. risked being shut down if it opened because of its proximity to two schools north of downtown.

St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson speaks at a news conference March 25 about the dangers of a concentrated marijuana extract known as butane hash oil.(Photo: Courtesy of Minnesota Department of Public Safety)

Story Highlights

• Two teens overdosed in Duluth after using the drug
• Marijuana wax doesn't produce an odor, making it harder to detect
• Be aware of the signs of manufacturing or using Butane hash oil

Marijuana wax has been identified as a new threat to public safety in what seems to be a never-ending movement to find new ways to get high (or higher) on weed.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety issued a warning recently about the dangers of marijuana wax.