After waiting in line for hours at a booth during a medical marijuana convention in San Francisco, Jeff Harrington needed only a two-minute consultation and a written recommendation to become a medical marijuana patient in California. He now can legally purchase and possess marijuana from any one of thousands of marijuana businesses in the state.

Across the country in Connecticut, an established physician-patient relationship is required before patients are deemed qualified for medical marijuana, and only licensed pharmacists can own and operate dispensaries.

SEATTLE (AP) - The Washington Traffic Safety Commission says more marijuana-using drivers are getting into fatal crashes.

Data released Tuesday indicate that the number of Washington drivers involved in deadly crashes who tested positive for active marijuana doubled from 2013 to 2014 - the first year of legal marijuana sales in the state.

Commission member Shelly Baldwin says that's alarming - especially considering that the number of alcohol-related fatal crashes has been dropping.

As deputy director of the Washington Liquor Control Board, Randy Simmons helped craft the state's retail marijuana program. He's decided to step down.

The veteran bureaucrat who helped implement Washington's marijuana law is stepping down.

Randy Simmons, deputy director of the Washington Liquor Control Board, told Seattle Times staff writer Bob Young that this year's difficult legislative session played a factor in his decision. Battles erupted over the plan to fold the state's mostly unregulated medical marijuana industry into the regulated retail one.

What do you get when you combine pot and techies? (No, not a late night Doritos-driven coding session.) It's a whole new startup industry that's blossoming in Seattle.

The Emerald City is already known for being fertile ground for tech startups. With the growing recreational and medicinal cannabis industries getting off the ground, we're seeing the tech and marijuana markets colliding in new and very interesting ways.

Cy Scott is one of the co-founders of Leafly, a website that allows users to rate and review pot strains and dispensaries. Scott says the seed for Leafly was planted while he was working at Kelly Blue Book, a website that allows users to rate and review cars.

Washington launched its second-in-the-nation legal marijuana market with just a handful of stores selling high-priced pot to long lines of customers. A year later, the state has about 160 shops open, tax revenues have soared past expectations and sales top $1.4 million per day.

Washington launched its second-in-the-nation legal marijuana market with just a handful of stores selling high-priced pot to long lines of customers. A year later, the state has about 160 shops open, tax revenues have soared past expectations and sales top $1.4 million per day. Washington legal cannabis sales tax topped $70M in year one, surpassing all estimates.

And who knows — the industry might even start making some money.

Want a job in cannabis?  David Murét ofViridian Staffing joins show host Shango Los to discuss where the jobs are in this exploding market and how you can get one. Viridian Staffing is a recruiting agency in Washington that connects employers with job-seekers in the legal cannabis industry. Companies in Washington have hired Viridian to find and place candidates in job roles ranging from entry-level to executive, in every sector and niche of the marijuana market.

After five years, the founders of marijuana strain and dispensary database Leaflyare moving on to their next cannabis-related startup.

Cy Scott, Brian Wansolich, and Scott Vickers — who launched Leafly in 2010 — are the co-founders of Headset, a new Seattle-based startup that’s building a business intelligence platform for the fast-growing marijuana industry.

Marijuana has come a long way since the days of Reefer Madness. Three years after Washington voters legalized recreational use, a new radio documentary will examine the social, political and commercial state of the herb.

On November 6, Seattle radio station Puget Sound FM will air an original program, “Taking the High Road,” which looks at marijuana post-legalization through the eyes of local officials, marijuana entrepreneurs, consumers and parents. The program airs at 7 pm and will be available for free download as well.

The documentary kicks off a six-month exhibit of the history of marijuana in media. The project concludes with the station’s April 20, 2016 broadcast day when media from the exhibit as well as music, comedy and more are featured on-air.

Event promoter Cory Wray, 32, is excited to bring the inaugural Northwest Cannabis Classic to the Tacoma Armory the weekend of Aug. 29-30. Approximately 70 vendors are scheduled for the trade show with an expected attendance of 4,000-5,000 visitors.

Previous cannabis-related conventions and trade shows in Washington have lacked only one thing: cannabis.

That is about to change.

Given what he’s about to bring to Tacoma, the “M” in Cory Wray’s MBA might well stand for marijuana, a substance of which he claims to be a longtime consumer.

If the bill becomes law, D.C. could regulate marijuana

Senate Appropriations Committee also votes to allow banks to provide services to state-legalized marijuana stores

[Press Release] A key Senate committee passed a bill [July 23] allowing the nation’s capital to establish regulated marijuana stores and let banks provide financial services to state-legalized marijuana dispensaries. These are just two of several marijuana reforms advancing in Congress.  Meanwhile sentencing reform is gaining steam, and the U.S. is shifting towards treating drug use as a health issue instead of a criminal justice issue.