Companies have until June 5 to file applications with the state’s health department for one of five licenses to dispense medical marijuana

Erik Holling spent more than 10 years helping turn a family business into a global information-technology company with a staff of 3,500 people in more than 190 countries.

Now he is aiming to be at the forefront of a new industry for New York state: medical marijuana.

Mr. Holling, who earlier in his career worked in medical research and health care, is now president of Valley Agriceuticals, a Purchase-based health-care company vying for one of five licenses to grow and distribute medical marijuana in New York.

Pay taxes and/or die

California authorities are notoriously creative when it comes to wringing as much tax revenue as possible out of the state's businesses, yet are leaving real money on the table because of their failure to come up with a simple way for medical marijuana dispensaries to pay their tab.

Voters legalized this business 19 years ago with the passage of Proposition 215. But an uncertain federal legal status has complicated the matter since then. The state only collects a small percentage of the sales-and-use taxes these businesses owe, although a new program is attempting to address the imbalance.

Right now it’s impossible to accurately enforce stoned driving laws, because there is no roadside test that can determine whether a driver is actually high.

Which is why many of the people checking out the Cannabix Technologies booth at the Marijuana Investor Summit in Denver last month were thrilled. Here, finally, in a hotel ballroom littered with men in suits hawking useless apps and grow-house accessories, was a product with real potential: a marijuana breathalyzer.

City’s plan to regulate marijuana shops is a farce

My local dry cleaner is gone, replaced by one of the more than half a dozen “medical marijuana dispensaries” within a 10-minute walk from my home.

In another neighbourhood, a friend says it’s easier to get a joint than buy a loaf of bread or a litre of milk.

At last count, Vancouver had 84 cannabis stores. There’s one block in Granville Street’s entertainment district has two.

There are so many pot shops along many of the main streets that it’s almost impossible to believe that cannabis is illegal in Canada.

Their signboards are set out on sidewalks. Their posters are on utility poles. Some run ads in weekly newspapers.

With the total retail value of all hemp products sold in the U.S. exceeding $620 million in 2014, the Hemp Industry Association (HIA) and Vote Hemp will look to use the sixth annual Hemp History Week as an opportunity to grow and promote the hemp industry.

Throughout the country on June 1-7, Hemp History Week will be the host to more than 1,100 events that will involve documentary film screenings, cooking demonstrations, retail promotion, educational outreach, spring hemp plantings and hemp home building courses, according to the press release.

With the total retail value of all hemp products sold in the U.S. exceeding $620 million in 2014, the Hemp Industry Association (HIA) and Vote Hemp will look to use the sixth annual Hemp History Week as an opportunity to grow and promote the hemp industry.

Throughout the country on June 1-7, Hemp History Week will be the host to more than 1,100 events that will involve documentary film screenings, cooking demonstrations, retail promotion, educational outreach, spring hemp plantings and hemp home building courses, according to the press release.

PIERCE CO - A new proposal that's in Pierce County Committee would lessen the rules in the county dealing with marijuana production, processing and retail sales.

The ordinance, sponsored by council members Derek Young, Connie Ladenburg, and Rick Talbert, would remove federal government authorization as a condition of approval for a marijuana-licensed business. It would also remove a requirement that limits marijuana retail sales to detached buildings.

As a resident of Washington state, I've witnessed some big changes over the past decade -- but perhaps none bigger than the legalization of marijuana on a recreation basis.

Why legalize?
Approved by voters in the Nov. 2012 elections, Washington state joined Colorado as the first two recreation-legal states in the country. Since then, Oregon and Alaska, along with Washington D.C., have joined in legalizing marijuana for recreational, adult-use purposes.

The legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical purposes is significant for Americans for a number of reasons, but those reasons differ depending on whom you ask.

PALMER — Two draft ballot measures presently under review by the city of Palmer and Mat-Su Borough would ban most marijuana businesses, if voters approve.

The identically worded measures would exempt businesses dealing with industrial hemp, but would outlaw parlors, cafes, commercial grow operations for recreational uses, or any other forms of business trading in the drug, at least as they appeared in copies provided by the respective municipal clerks.

The primary sponsor of the Palmer initiative, Donna Irsik, said Friday the city measure had been rejected by the city clerk and would need to be reworded. Irsik said she was waiting to see the precise nature of the changes required before commenting in detail. The borough-level initiative is still under legal review.

As one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists, Anabel Hernández has dedicated the past decade to investigating her country’s drug war -- one of the most dangerous projects a reporter could ask for. Her 2010 book Los señores del narco, translated into English as Narcoland, detailed the extensive government corruption that allowed Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his Sinaloa cartel to become one of the most powerful criminal enterprises in the world.