Through a new licensing agreement between two Washington-based companies, cannabis-infused sugar and salt can make its way to the state's recreational retail marijuana market.

Seattle-based DeepCell Industries developed a technology to fuse THC from marijuana with crystals, like salt and sugar. Now, Green Labs, a licensed producer/processor in Raymond, have inked a deal to manufacture and distribute DeepCell's brands.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Rolland Gregg and his family have fought federal marijuana charges for more than three years, arguing that the roughly 70 marijuana plants investigators found on their Washington property were for their own medicinal use and fully complied with state law.

A federal jury last year convicted Gregg, his mother and his then-wife of growing 50 to 100 marijuana plants -- amounts their attorney said are in compliance with state medical marijuana law. With prison sentences looming, they have now turned to a recent act of Congress that they say should have stopped the U.S. Department of Justice from prosecuting them because they were doing what their state allowed. Marijuana is illegal under federal law, and the DOJ disagrees with Gregg's understanding of the new law.

During the initial period right after legalization, residents of Colorado and Washington came to an unfortunate realization – legal marijuana was expensive. An eighth that would have cost you $50 from your illegal dealer would end up costing you upwards of $70-80 in a retail dispensary during that first year or so. Sadly, this drove many residents to continue to buy marijuana illegally, where it was all around more affordable – the main revenue of those cannabis shops came from out of state residents looking for the “legal weed experience”, as it were.

One of the biggest questions surrounding marijuana legalization is whether it will make the drug much more affordable and accessible — and therefore increase use.

Well, some early data is coming out of Washington state, which legalized marijuana in 2012 and began sales in 2014. And it looks like, as drug policy experts long suggested, marijuana's price drops after legalization. Keith Humphreys of Stanford University explained in the Washington Post:

A few months ago, we wrote about why cannabis legalization doesn’t lead to higher teen use rates. A recent Washington study from the American Academy of Pediatrics bolsters that claim with new evidence showing that minors do not feel cannabis has been any easier to obtain since the state legalized recreational use in 2012. This data comes from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey which polls tens of thousands of students each year across hundreds of schools.

Despite concerns that legalizing marijuana use for adults would make it easier for adolescents to get ahold of it, a new study in Washington State shows that teens find it no easier now than before the law was passed in 2012.

An abstract of the study, "Adolescents' Ease of Access to Marijuana Before and After Legalization of Marijuana in Washington State," will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting in Baltimore on Sunday, May 1. Researchers compared 2010 and 2014 data from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey. Each year's survey included questions about ease of access to marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes and other illicit drugs.

Having assessed wholesale cannabis prices for a year, we thought it would be insightful to compare the price movement of cannabis to other agricultural commodities.  The chart below illustrates the average week-on-week price change for selected commodities over the past year.

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) has organized the formation of a lab proficiency standards and pesticides focused work group comprised of regulators, industry leaders and cannabis lab specialists.

The group, whose first meeting takes place this Thursday in Olympia, will work to determine lab proficiency standards for Washington’s cannabis testing labs, as well as how to proceed with the regulatory control of pesticide use on legal cannabis crops.

Normally, when a company based in one state wants to sell products in another state, it starts calling truckers. For Strainz, a Las Vegas marijuana company, it was more complicated.

By early 2015, Strainz’s owners knew they wanted to expand to Colorado and Washington, the states with the most normalized marijuana markets. Despite state laws that allow the sale of marijuana, it remains a federal criminal offense to ship it across state lines. And as Nevada residents, the ­husband-and-wife co-founders weren’t eligible to apply for business licenses in either state.

As more states contemplate legalizing recreational marijuana, the businesses that pop up are going to need banking solutions. Fortunately for them, more US banks are becoming willing to dabble in the cannabis trade.

Over the last two years, the number of banks and credit unions open to dealing with marijuana businesses has increased by almost six times, the Associated Press reported, citing federal data. Back in March of 2014, only 51 banks and credit unions in the country were willing to deal with cash from pot businesses, but the number now stands at 301.