Cannabis is enjoying a major public-image improvement. After all, we've learned that the THC in marijuana has medicinal uses, while the plant fibers in hemp have countless uses in manufacturing. The legitimacy of marijuana is growing as states legalize it and corporations invest substantial resources in cannabinoid research and development.

No matter your stance on cannabis, you should get to know the world's most high-profile plant. So here are some facts and figures on marijuana that may surprise or impress you:

The nation’s employers have a problem, according to a new report in the New York Times—they can’t find enough workers who are capable of passing a drug test. Fortunately, for some of these companies, this is a problem with a very simple solution: Stop drug-testing your workers.

The modern American landscape seemed like a pipe dream just a decade ago. The White House is occupied by a person of color, marriage is no longer confined by Judeo-Christian concepts of love and cannabis has gone from being a despicable “gateway drug” to a legitimate component of the economies of several states. 

One can only admire the evolution underway in the world of cannabis agriculture and consumption. As soon as American innovators saw the budding legitimacy of big-time cannabusiness, they got to work ushering in a new age of grow and intake technology to meet and even create demand.

Consumption 2.0

A marijuana-enthusiast website that allows members to watch drug-related videos and movies while taking part in real-time chat was found to be leaking millions of messages from more than 44,000 users on to the open web.

The website in question, entitled TheTreesNetwork, is a niche internet community that launched in March 2015, which not only streams movies but lets users submit their own content. The website states: "Grab your favourite piece and chill with some friends while smoking and watching videos together! If this is your first time visiting, make sure to introduce yourself!"

Scientists are working on nonaddictive opiates, pills that sober you up, and pot designed to produce certain moods.

In 2014, i walked into a dispensary in Boulder and emerged with something truly surreal: a receipt. For weed. Two years earlier, Colorado had voted to legalize recreational marijuana—reflecting a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the drug. In just two generations, the portion of the population that supports legalization went from 12 percent to 58 percent. Along the way, we’ve seen emerging marijuana markets, new technologies, and the normalization of experiences that were once taboo.

AXIM’s CBG Clinical Trials Led by World-Renowned Dermatologist and Specialist on Psoriasis and Eczema, Dr. Meinardi, at The Maurits Clinics in The Hague, The Netherlands.

There are hundreds, even thousands of popular cannabis strains available on the black market. But how do these illicit, black market plants find their way into a legal, regulated market?

Up to this point, because there are so few legal sources of cannabis in the world, the government of Canada has largely relied on finding ways to transition these illegal plants into a regulated system.

So how does an illegal plant become legal? Transitioning from prohibition to regulation can be a complicated process, and this process impacts patients, licensed producers and even researchers, and several industry experts say it is is already creating a genetic bottleneck.

Measuring ‘drunk’ is pretty easy; the more alcohol someone drinks, the more alcohol shows up in that person’s blood and the more impaired that person becomes, falling somewhere on a scale of tipsy to wasted. Measuring ‘high,’ on the other hand, is far hazier—much to the dismay of some states' law enforcement.

The third MJ customer category is often overlooked by cannabis brands targeting the recreational market – the casual or occasional user.  Despite irregularity in their usage, the casual recreational market represents the biggest opportunity for growth because it is such a large percentage of the overall population.  Failing to recognize, and appeal to this group will eventually have a negative impact on many cannabusinesses.

The Persona

Agrilyst, the winner of our TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 Battlefield competition, today announced it has raised a $1 million seed round for its indoor agriculture analytics service.

The round was led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures with participation from Metamorphic Ventures and a number of angel investors and seed funds, including the co-founders of QuickFire, another Battlefield company that was later acquired by Facebook.

As Agrilyst co-founder Allison Kopf told me, the funding round was oversubscribed. She attributed the interest from investors to the fact that the company combines agriculture — something investors are interested in but typically know little about — with the more traditional concept of a Software-as-a-Service business and data analytics.