The marijuana industry faces a huge problem: Few banks will touch cannabis cash. 

Even though big bucks are on the line — Colorado is predicted to pull in more than $140 million from taxes on marijuana sales in 2016 alone — marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug at a the federal level.

Most banks don't want to deal with that kind of risk, forcing dispensaries to operate on an all-cash basis.

Seasoned leadership from tech giant EMC and Sun Microsystems joins quality control and data analytics company serving legal cannabis industry.

If you asked seasoned tech executives Richard Corley and Doug Wood six months ago if their careers would lead them to the booming legal cannabis industry they would have certainly said, “Not likely!”. 

Enter Orange Photonics founder, Dylan Wilks, an expert in spectroscopy and chromatography. “In order to scale our upcoming cannabis analysis platform, integrate hardware with cloud-based data analytics and expand our potential customer base, we needed individuals with a diverse set of corporate, business and product related skills. The individuals we found have been there and done that, again and again.” 

A few months ago, noted scientist Dr Henry Lowe made another pitch for the use of science and technology to aid sustainable development in Jamaica.

Addressing the 50th anniversary annual general meeting of the Jamaica Exporters’ Association, Dr Lowe pointed out that successful societies, such as Singapore, USA and Germany, have used science and technology, not only for the goods and services they produce, but also to establish quality and standardisation for their domestic and export industries.

David Dinenberg’s Kind Financial developed software that helps government agencies track pot production and sales. The unlikely software entrepreneur, with no tech background, has set up a partnership with Microsoft to market the software.

When David Dinenberg decided to get into the marijuana industry, his business plan was based on fear.

In 2014, he founded Kind Financial with the aim of making loans and providing other services to marijuana growers and sellers — customers banks were scared to work with.

Just two years later, though, the company’s main business is about helping navigate bureaucracy, specifically the red tape that comes with legalization. Its marquee product is software that helps government agencies track pot production and sales.

A group of local doctors plans to open a medical marijuana testing facility in Columbia to ensure product quality in anticipation of a burgeoning therapeutic cannabis industry in Maryland.  

Testing is required by state law for cannabis growers, and this provided an opportunity for the group of four doctors, led by Dr. Andrew Rosenstein, chief of the division of gastroenterology at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center.

He said they were mindful of potential threats to some of their sickest patients from contaminants that could complicate conditions rather than alleviate pain and other symptoms.

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, INC. (OTC Grey:PNPL) (“Pineapple Express” or the “Company”), a provider of consulting, technology, property rentals and branding concepts to businesses in the legal cannabis industry, announced today that it has hired Orr Builders to carry out Phase 1 of the Company’s “Pineapple Park” project in the City of Desert Hot Springs, California.

Since its formation in 1994, Orr Builders, the largest general contractor based in California’s Coachella Valley, has successfully completed millions of square feet of industrial, commercial, medical, restaurant and retail space throughout Southern California.

“We are excited to have been selected to be part of the team that will bring this great project to fruition”, said Orr Builders President/CEO Brian Orr.

While more and more people are being prescribed medical cannabis, we don't know much about why it works - and even less about how certain strains work for specific ailments.

The makers of a new app, Releaf, are hoping to provide a better framework for medical users to track what types of cannabis work best for them. Founded in 2015 by Branden Hall, Franco Brockelman, and Keenan Keeling, Releaf could regiment a process that, for most patients, has been of necessity based on trial-and-error.

If the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) has its way, Jamaica's air and seaports will have kiosks or dedicated desks where visitors can pick up a licence to sample some of the 'good herb' to enhance their island experience.

The CLA is already looking at the framework for the operation of the entities.

"We've had our first meeting, and my thinking is that we'd need a few weeks to turn out an appropriate policy document," reported chairman of the Medical Committee of the CLA, Dr Winston De La Haye.

Speaking at a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum on Jamaica's burgeoning ganja industry, De La Haye said the country needs to move quickly to plug any potential gap in proper regulations for that.

When KIND Financial began in 2014, it was supposed to be the Wells Fargo for weed growers and dispensaries. 

“I was initially going to be KIND Banking," CEO David Dinenberg says. "I was going to be the marijuana bank.”

Discouraged by the side of effects of medicines prescribed for his anxiety, Michael Borque found a medicinal haven in a more natural remedy: marijuana. Given that his home state of Massachusetts had yet to sell the drug medicinally, the 40-year-old went about acquiring his first ever buds the traditional way. One parking lot deal and rolled joint later, Borque realized that he liked the high, but hated the burning sensation he felt in his throat and lungs that followed a smoke. Fast forward two years and Borque is now the CEO of Stoneham-based CannaKorp, maker of the CannaCloud vaporizer.