A future Central Oregon attraction may not be another craft brewery, but a marijuana grow site where tourists can pick up samples and see how the formerly illegal cannabis plant is cultivated.

Portland will likely be the primary destination for marijuana tourism in Oregon, but Bend and Central Oregon could also see an influx with visitors combining their trips to grow sites with other amenities the region has to offer. The ability for tour companies to operate and offer something like the Bend Ale Trail or a vineyard-style tour is contingent on rulemaking currently being considered by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and state legislators.

The Las Vegas community bank that last year announced it was open to banking Nevada’s budding medical marijuana industry has changed its mind, telling KNPR’s State of Nevada that compliance issues made it difficult to handle these businesses.

Jason Awad, chief executive officer of First Security Bank of Nevada, said the bank will be sending letters to its customers informing them of the bank’s decision. He told KNPR’s State of Nevada these were holding accounts used by dispensary owners while they were waiting to be licensed.

“We found after several months that the cost is so prohibitive and the burden so high that it is very difficult to do what we … really wanted to do,” Awad told KNPR.

Hans Enriquez is quite the personality. He’s witty, driven, and personable. He’s committed to his vision, enraptured by his clientele, and has succeeded in creating a new type of experience for the cannabis consumer community. For years, the cannabis community has found themselves wandering into dingy storefronts being sold only low-quality products and vessels in the stereotypical dark and sketchy atmosphere, but with the changing tide of cannabis in mainstream culture, they’ve been looking for something more!

A Saskatoon-area marijuana lounge has shuttered its doors, but its owner says the closure won't stop him from pushing for legalization, even if accomplishing that goal means giving it away himself.

Jeffrey Lundstrom, owner and operator of The Lounge in the Loft, said representatives from the city's community services branch, the fire department and Saskatoon Health Region requested access to the property for inspection purposes on May 11.

Rather than grant entry to the business, he instead chose to close it down permanently.

"They were very persistent about the inspection.

My basic thoughts on it were that this is the first stage of them attempting to push my business out," Lundstrom said.

Ed Perlmutter, a Democratic congressman who represents a district just to the north and west of Denver, has introduced HR 2076, addressing the federal barriers to banking for state-legal marijuana businesses. Though the text of the bill describes its purpose as the creation of “protections for depository institutions that provide financial services to marijuana-related businesses,” but there is some reason to believe that its approach is far to0 narrow to be effective.

The House referred the bill to the Committee on Financial Services, where Perlmutter serves, and to the Committee on the Judiciary.

A new kind of greenhouse — designed for marijuana production and soon to be completed in Maple Ridge — is set to make the green business even greener, say the facility’s owners.

The entrepreneurs behind Tantalus Labs describe their 115,000-square-foot purpose-built cannabis greenhouse as the first of its kind in North America, with a horticultural approach they say will produce a better, more sustainable sun-grown product with a substantially-reduced energy footprint.

As marijuana moves toward the mainstream, Tantalus’ owners say now is the time for the crop to “rise out of the shadows and into the light.”

Canada’s bring your own marijuana vapor lounge scene is experiencing impressive growth. Originally a metropolitan city phenom, bring your pot lounges have opened in smaller Canadian communities with great success.

Until recently lounges were a Toronto thing because our politicians and police presumably had better things to do. When conservative city councilor Mark Grimes did request a report on bring your weed lounges, a City of Toronto staff investigation determined lounges were actually Medical Marihuana Inhalation Facilities that had few police problems.

Not exactly what Grimes was seeking.

One of Colorado’s largest chains of marijuana stores on Wednesday laid off 65 employees — or about 45 percent of the company’s total workforce, according to owner Shawn Phillips.

The pot layoffs are believed to be the largest in Colorado’s 16-month recreational era.

Phillips owns nine cannabis stores in Colorado, all of which are part of the Strainwise-branded network, and he called the cuts “drastic” but “temporary” in a letter he wrote to employees obtained by The Cannabist.

As marijuana legalization goes mainstream, entrepreneurs have rushed to develop businesses in the recreational and medical consumer markets, as well as several other auxiliary niches. One such entrepreneur is Mike Siffin, founder of Hash Brothers Entertainment LLC, who recently unveiled his plan to create a crowd-funded board game for adult cannabis consumers. Siffin was interviewed by the cannabis business news website Ganjapreneur.com as part of an ongoing series of interviews that the site conducts with cannabis start-ups, business experts, and investors.

DENVER, May 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advanced Cannabis Solutions, d/b/a General Cannabis Corporation (OTC:CANN), a service provider to businesses in the regulated cannabis industry, today announced that it has hired the team of Next Big Crop Consulting, a Boulder, Colorado based cannabis consulting firm, who will now be working for CANN as apart of General Cannabis Consulting, CANN's wholly owned subsidiary.

Effective today, Rich Cardinal and Dave Millar will join General Cannabis as vice presidents. Trevor McGarvey will be engaged as a consultant to General Cannabis.