Artists aren’t so quick to respond to social change. It’s not that they don’t care, of course, it’s just that art doesn’t work that way.

Conceiving and executing art — figuring out what to say and how to say it — take time. Add to that technical things, like printing, framing and paint-drying, and then logistics, like finding a spot on the schedule of a busy gallery.

On the floor of the 2015 Marijuana Business Conference and Expo in Chicago this week there is one word on everyone’s lips: greenhouse. From investors to cultivators, the consensus is that a bright future for cannabis cultivation is looming, and the future is Sungrown.

There are countless advantages to greenhouse growing, but the core of the argument always returns to an inescapable token of common sense: sunlight is the ideal means to grow plants. No matter what combination of solar-panel-charged LEDs or subterranean geothermal cooling humans come up with, no methodology to date can hold a candle to the convenient fusion reactor in the sky shining light on us daily.

Google on Tuesday pumped $15 million into a farming-focused technology startup, the latest in a surge of investment applying Internet innovations to growing food.

The funding round led by Google's investment arm brings to nearly $28 million the total amount of money pumped into Farmers Business Network (FBN) by backers including powerhouse Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

"Farmers are quintessential entrepreneurs; they are on their own and are mechanics, hackers, managers, animal specialists and more," FBN co-founder Charles Baron told AFP.

"Agriculture has always seen lots of innovation. What you are seeing more of now is venture-backed companies pushing into agriculture."

The history of marijuana prohibition is filled with warnings. What kind of warnings are there about marijuana today? Well, it can still get you arrested in many places... but aside from that, true or false, what other popular warnings are circulating today?

One fairly simple and rather obvious way to find this out is to do a web search for “marijuana warning,” and look at a selected sample of the results.

VANCOUVER – More than 150 people gathered in Maple Ridge Friday to protest a proposed medical marijuana facility at 272nd Street and Bell Avenue.

They say the greenhouse would be too close to homes and schools and that the facility is going to be much bigger than the 40,000 sq ft they were initially told it would be. It appears the facility will be 115,000 sq ft.

Medical marijuana company Tantalus Labs, which is building the greenhouse, has not yet received a license from the federal government but a building permit has been approved by the City of Maple Ridge.

Some undercover sting operations were conducted at Washington recreational marijuana stores recently, and some of the results were very disappointing. Whereas the stings in Colorado yielded no failures, Washington had four failures. That’s unacceptable. I always hate posting articles like this because I should be highlighting our victories, and not highlighting examples that will no doubt be used by marijuana opponents like Kevin Sabet.

TORONTO , May 21, 2015 /CNW/ - Bedrocan Cannabis Corp. ("Bedrocan" or "the Company") (BED.V) announced its financial and operational results for the three and thirteen month periods ended January 31, 2015 . Bedrocan Cannabis Corp's wholly owned subsidiary Bedrocan Canada Inc. is a Licensed Producer under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR).

Q4 and Year-End Financial and Operational Highlights:

Nevada’s medical marijuana law prevents the outdoor growth of marijuana due to security concerns.  The law – which mandates that cannabis plants must not be visible to the general public for security reasons – is also creating an extra headache and increasing the bottom line for the state’s growers.  The ever-present desert sun is now an option off the table.

A single 100,000 square foot facility can require up to 5 megawatts of electricity to fuel its growing operations for a year – or enough electricity to power 1,000 homes.  That is also about 5% of the entire capacity of a state-based substation.  Even covering an entire warehouse roof with solar cells is not enough to offset the energy drain created by such facilities.

An unemployed chef came up with a recipe to make some cash, baking marijuana-laced cookies and then using the Internet for promotion and his own version of the fast-food industry’s drive-thru window for distribution.

Sebastian P. Kujawa made a habit of leaving his Brinton Street house in North Buffalo with a fresh batch of cookies and crossing through Minnesota Linear Park, an old right of way, to the dead end of Nicholson Street and wait for customers to drive up and purchase their orders, Buffalo police said.

Neighbors watched these nocturnal transactions, a man leaping out of the bushes with a package in hand and darting up to cars that had just parked. It was an unnerving sight.

What the heck was going on?

Get ready Coloradans! The Colorado General Assembly passed a bill on May 6 that would ask voters to exempt marijuana revenues from the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) and would lower the special sales tax rate on marijuana. The bill is meant to address the potential refund of an estimated $58 million in retail marijuana tax revenue under TABOR.

State officials would like to keep the excess money and use it for programs such as the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund, which receives funding from marijuana tax revenues, instead of refunding the money to taxpayers as required by TABOR. But to do this, Coloradans must give their approval.