Cannabusiness Owners and Employees Discuss the Economic Reality—and Limits—of Working in the So-Called "Green Rush".

"You see many people working hard, working long hours, and not driving sports cars. The people I see are motivated more by what they can do to help other people.”

Is there software in the burgeoning legal marijuana industry? Just a dab. With four states offering legal marijuana, and more than 20 with medical or decriminalized cannabis laws, the business of selling the plant and its derivatives is growing every year.

Naturally, software developers, vendors and startups alike are all looking to cash in on the boom. Silicon Valley, itself located in a state with legalized medical marijuana, has even produced a few pot startups.

Leafly, for example, offers an index of pot shops, crowdsourced information on the powers and effects of various strains, and coverage of the industry as a whole, no different than a wine blog or beer magazine.

City and state officials, entrepreneurs, attorneys and others will come together June 14 for a daylong conference at the University of Washington on the future of marijuana policy in the state.

DeepCell Industries, a Seattle startup that helps develop technology for cannabis-infused products and brands, has raised $410,000 to fuel growth.

DeepCell Industries CEO Kelly Ogilvie.

DeepCell doesn’t engage in the manufacture or distribution of cannabis products. Instead, the company develops the technology and then licenses it to distribution partners.

Among the lofty pines of timber country across the street from the Little Creek Casino on State Highway 108, the first tribal-owned-and-operated recreational cannabis store in the US is open for business.

Customers flow into the nondescript cabin storefront, on the Squaxin Island tribe’s reservation, reflecting much of the same diversity as the rest of Washington state’s growing legal cannabis market: a young couple on their way to work from the nearby town of Shelton, a retired couple who are staying at the casino. A man in a tie-dye hat buys a couple joints and tells everyone to “be good, dudes” as he leaves.

Recent regulations in both Washington state and Oregon now allow out of state investors to fund and/or compete with local cannabis businesses.

Oregon and Washington recreational cannabis businesses will soon face greater pressure from outside competition as new regulations now allow out-of-state investors to fund and compete with local cannabis businesses. 

This new legislation lifts residency requirements enabling once banned out-of-state investors to participate-in and fund Oregon and Washington cannabis operations.

Meghan Walstatter owner of Pure Green Dispensary in Portland, Oregon said she used to favor residency requirements, but now she welcomes outside influence. 

Jeremy Moberg peers into a microscope at a leaf in a Petri dish. “Thrips”, he declares to a man wearing a facemask and surgical gloves. “We’ll get rid of those with neem oil.” Moberg spotted the pest while cloning in his greenhouse. He’s not your run-of-the-mill biologist or horticulturalist. The 41-year-old owns a marijuana farm with a multi-million dollar turnover in Washington state, USA, where the drug was legalised for recreational use in 2012. His expertise comes from two decades of growing illegally, deep in the woods, dodging the helicopter raids of drug-enforcement officers.

I recently did a TEDx talk on the development of “Big Marijuana.” The overall theme of this particular TED session was the “Potential in Polarity,” and/or the “Best of Both Worlds.” Given these two themes, my talk focused on whether state-legal marijuana is helping to create “Big Marijuana.” My talk was released on YouTube last week and you can view it here. But for those of you who don’t want to spend 18 minutes watching my presentation, this post summarizes my talk.

If you love eating bacon, you may find this interesting.

Farmers in Washington claimed that marijuana pig feeds help to make pigs grow bigger, and add more savory. While the state is about to embark on a first-of-its-kind legal market for recreational marijuana, the farmers of new cannabis growers have found alternatives to what to do with the excess stems, roots and leaves of the cannabis.

Susannah Gross, an owner of a five-acre farm north of Seattle, joined a group experimenting with a solution to make a marijuana into appetite-enhancing properties.

Four pigs were given feeds with supplemented potent plant leavings. After four months, the pigs' weight turned into 20 to 30 pounds heavier than the half-dozen other pigs.

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board is taking steps to address high levels of pesticides found in some legal marijuana samples. But the agency does not currently require testing for pesticides. Growers say for now, it’s up to consumers to seek that information.

Last week the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis board approved the state’s first threshold levels for certain pesticides. Marijuana with higher pesticide levels could face a product recall.

Danielle Rosellison and her husband are licensed marijuana growers and processers in Bellingham.  They rely on small rooms and controlled environments to grow without pesticides, but she’s not sure customers appreciate that.