A group of lawyers have launched the National Cannabis Bar Association to help clients navigate the conflicting maze of local, state and federal laws that govern cannabis businesses.

Although she now serves an A-list clientele, Dina Browner first stepped into the medical marijuana biz to help out a friend with cancer

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Stepping into the lobby of the West Hollywood medical marijuana dispensary where Dina Browner serves up buds to movie stars, it’s hard to miss the name Snoop Lion splashed across a hydroponic grow box painted red, green and gold.

The Rastafarian rapper formerly known as Snoop Dogg didn’t have anyone to operate the custom-made indoor marijuana greenhouse that came as a gift from its manufacturer, so he asked his “doctor” to keep it filled with cannabis flowers.

Vancouver City Council began their public hearings this past Wednesday, June 10th to get public input on their proposed guidelines to regulate ‘marijuana related businesses’.

With over 200 people registered to speak, Council met Wednesday and Thursday night from 6-10pm, and 10-4 Saturday, making their way through over one hundred speakers. Not all those registered to speak opted to in the end. Council has announced they intend to reconvene Monday, June 22 at 6pm.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) --

A lawsuit was filed Monday by attorney Matthew Pappas on behalf of Sky High Holistic accusing the Santa Ana Police Department, the city of Santa Ana and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido of taking bribes from marijuana dispensaries in exchange for favorable treatment.

This following a controversial police raid at the marijuana dispensary on May 26 that was caught on surveillance video, and shows police playing darts, an officer making demeaning remarks about an amputee and another officer eating what appears to be a pot-laced edible.

"It's deplorable that city officials and people seeking financial gain would use the police to accomplish their self-serving goals," Pappas said.

“Between August and October,” Aeron Sullivan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tradiv, Inc., predicted, “everyone is going to see the first mega-wholesale flood of product [in Colorado]… something that has never happened in the market before.” He intends to be there with a range of online business-to-business services designed for the small enterprises that make up 88 percent of the industry.

Tradiv, a participant in the CanopyBoulder start-up accelerator, has just completed its beta phase and expects to roll out the commercial version of its software in Colorado this September and in Washington and Oregon in the months thereafter.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Marijuana companies in California and Colorado have tabbed prominent American Indian leaders from the Dakotas to help prod tribes across the nation into the pot business.

Tex Hall, the former chairman of the oil-rich Three Affiliated Tribes, and Robert Shepherd, former chairman of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe in northeastern South Dakota and southeastern North Dakota, are trying to recruit and assist tribes in producing high-grade marijuana products.

“Those who want to get in early are the ones who will really succeed,” said Shepherd, the tribal relations officer for Denver-based Monarch America Inc.

AMHERST — Massachusetts should begin a robust discussion about marijuana policy and regulation right away so to avoid being caught flat-footed if voters approve legalization at the ballot box in 2016.

That was the central message imparted by nearly a dozen speakers at an invitation-only marijuana policy forum sponsored by the UMass-Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences on Saturday.

The odds have been plainly against marijuana legalization for decades, but the tide appears to be turning to the point where the marijuana movement may soon be able to get over its previous barriers.

At a crossroads
Two decades ago public opinion was very much against the idea of legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. A survey from Gallup in the mid-1990s pegged the public's favorable opinion on the drug at just 25%.

Sonoma County marijuana growers came together Sunday near Sebastopol to talk about how their industry can come out of the shadows, flex some political muscle and position itself for a day when its product becomes legalized for all adults.

About 200 people gathered at the Sebastopol Grange for the first fundraiser of the newly formed Sonoma County Growers Alliance.

Speakers exhorted listeners to get involved in both lobbying the Legislature and in electing local officials who are sympathetic to their industry. They pointed to the wine industry, the county’s top legal crop, as a model to follow in developing a high-quality cachet and in influencing both state and local politics.

In February, TechCrunch reported that Calvin Broadus, aka Snoop Dogg, the famous rapper, was getting into the venture capital business, raising $25 million to launch a fund focused on investing in cannabis startups. Now, we know the fund’s name.