After signing some large US partners early this year, Melbourne delivery software start-up Swift needed to set up an office to support their fast growth in the US.

Now on top of the grocery chains, pizza stores and alcohol delivery start-ups they are already working with, they have brought medical marijuana distributors on board too.

“One of the companies we work with are the Uber for medical marijuana delivery,” co-founder and CEO, Joel Macdonald (pictured) revealed.

“Another is a much larger network that acts as the distribution aggregator between local dispensaries in greater Los Angeles area.”

Swift makes it super easy for businesses to dispatch, track and manage their mobile workforce.

This week, the "doomsday seed vault" (as it's known in headlines, anyway) made the news because scientists made the first "withdrawal" from the remote arctic store. But there's another reason to be excited about the underground vault on Norway's Svalbard archipelago.

Svalbard seed vault

Packets of cannabis seeds line the shelves of legal grow shops in Madrid. Many carry labels reporting the percentage of sativa and indica, two types of cannabis. Breeders often label plants that produce a more exciting high as sativa and plants that provide a more mellow feeling as indica, suggesting that cross-breeding tailors that buzz. The conceit is widespread. Botanist Jonathan Page at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, says he sees the same at local grow shops.

The biggest winner to emerge from the 2015 TechCrunch Disrupt SF battlefield is pot.

Two companies working closely with the legal marijuana industry took the event’s Disrupt Cup as well as Runner-Up awards on Wednesday,the Upstart Business Journalreports.

Brooklyn-based company Agrilystwon the Disrupt Cup in the end for a service that helps greenhouse operators grow more efficiently through precise data gathered from sensors set up throughout the indoor grow area itself.

e cannabis industry is the latest trend that Silicon Valley companies are investing in, and for good reason.

Venture capitalists, or private investors who provide venture capital to promising business ventures, are really starting to see the green that this industry is creating. With four states utilizing the recreational use of marijuana, there is certainly profit to be made.

Venture capitalists are looking for any kind of tech company to make it easier to acquire or grow the product, and maybe even lead the tech-marijuana industry. Some of the cannabis-focused technology includes mobile apps, search engines, and on-demand services.

Meadow and Eaze are medical marijuana delivery services, intending on becoming the Uber of cannabis.

The annual meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) is a highly unusual scientific conference. It has been closed to all media since its inception 25 years ago, lending an air of mystery to the gathering of researchers who study the unique chemicals found in cannabis.

In a relaxation of the organization's long-standing policy, ICRS permitted Nature reporters to attend this year's conference, which was hosted by Acadia University in the tiny Canadian town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia. The tight-knit group of researchers are bound together by onerous government restrictions on their subject, and by their sufferance of lingering suspicions from other scientists that they are a bunch of hippies trying to get an illicit drug legalized.

Oregon has been on the forefront of the cannabis industry for many years. After legalizing medical marijuana back in 1998 and recreational marijuana last year, the state has been a pioneer when it comes to important issues like reprieve for prior crimes. Measure 91 promises to open up a $450 million market for the state by 2020, according to New Frontier Financials projections, creating jobs, raising tax revenue, and yielding opportunities for investors.

South Dakota isn’t exactly known for amazing drug policy. Actually it probably has some of the worst in the country. Just being in a room where marijuana is being used can get you a year in prison! Furthermore, I know and have heard of many people that have been absolutely screwed over by South Dakota’s draconic drug laws.

Marijuana is a sticky subject. Twenty-three states (and D.C) have legalized some form of medical use, but possession, growth and distribution are still illegal in the majority of the United States.

However, as is the case with most new industries, slow regulation hasn’t stopped innovation.

Leaf, a TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 Battlefield company, is leading the revolution with its automated “Plug N’ Plant” home growing system. Leaf’s device is a 4′ x 2′ box that will fit two plants, which will yield between 4-5 ounces of weed.

Now that the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) have been implemented for a few years, many of us are familiar with the quality assurance requirements set forth by Health Canada for licensed producers (LPs). What are not commonly discussed are the benefits and drawbacks of these requirements in relation to the different growing environments used by different licensed producers. In addition to these issues, I will look at the options LPs have to ensure that what they produce meets these requirements. In contrast, I will compare the environments which many medical Cannabis producers operating under different or zero regulations in different locations face.