HempTech, a division of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based FutureWorld, unveiled a facility and energy-management system to help reduce the electricity consumption and cost for cannabis growers. HempTech’s smart. NRG energy management system includes three components:

Signaling growing acceptance of cannabis legalization nationally, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to allow banks to provide traditional banking services to marijuana businesses that are legal under state law.

Sponsored by Reps. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the amendment to the Financial Services appropriations bill prevents the Treasury Department from spending funds to penalize financial institutions that provide services to state-legal marijuana businesses. The amendment passed with bipartisan support, 231 to 192.

Cannabis extract treatment for severe childhood epilepsy to be fast-tracked in US

GW Pharmaceuticals' cannabis-extract treatment for severe childhood epilepsy is to be fast-tracked through the US drug approval system.

The Aim-listed company is currently testing its treatment, known as Epidiolex, on children with a rare but debilitating form of childhood epilepsy, known as Dravet Syndrome. Children with this condition do not respond to any existing epilepsy drugs.

US regulator the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants fast-track status to drugs thought to meet a previously unmet medical need. Drugs with this designation are given greater access to the regulator to help speed up the process of clinical testing, review and potential approval.

Opponents of marijuana-law reform insist that legalization is dangerous—but the biggest threat is to their own bottom line.

The only thing green about that bud is its chlorophyll.

You thought your pot came from environmentally conscious hippies? Think again. The way marijuana is grown in America, it turns out, is anything but sustainable and organic. Check out these mind-blowing stats, and while you're at it, read Josh Harkinson's feature story, "The Landscape-Scarring, Energy-Sucking, Wildlife-Killing Reality of Pot Farming."

The recreational and medical cannabis industry is booming, and start-ups are sprouting like grass. With the legal pot market expected to grow from $2.3 billion this year to $10.2 billion by 2018, according to a study by ArcView Market Research, there’s no shortage of investors willing to gamble their capital on the chance of mountain-high marijuana returns.

The marijuana industry never had room for professional design while stuck in the criminal sector. For decades, goofy stoner iconography, such as pot-leaf decals and so much tie-dye, were the de facto brand of marijuana in the popular imagination. Product packaging was limited to cellophane baggies and the tools of commerce (head shops, guys on bicycles) operating discreetly.

THE POT INDUSTRY IS POISED TO GROW FASTER THAN THE SMARTPHONE INDUSTRY.

Although the consensus isn’t the 100 percent sweep hoped for, more than half of U.S. physicians feel that medical marijuana should be legalized nationwide. Two-thirds of them say patients should have the option to use it as a treatment for pain and other ailments in which cannabis offers relief, according to a recent survey.

The survey was conducted by Medscape where more than 1,500 doctors were surveyed between Feb. 25 and March 3, and covered more than 12 different physician specialty areas.

A sucker is born every minute and in the newly emerging and quasi-legal cannabis market I am pretty sure that number is much higher (pun intended). I just finished watching Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street last night. Beyond the shock value of a lot of it was a sad and true story about the way “Wolfie” Jordan Belfort was able to fleece millions of dollars from hard working people by selling shitty pink sheet stocks that have little to no real company value behind them.

More than a dozen U.S. states have now completely decriminalized the act of possessing marijuana and both Colorado and Washington have made it legal to possess, sell, transport and cultivate the plant. But soon it may be legalized across the entire country following a decision Thursday by the federal government.

In a historic and significant moment in American history, last November, Colorado became the first US state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The impact of the decision could soon ripple across the entire country with vast opportunities to educate millions on the top health benefits of marijuana.