Israeli research and development in traditional areas like agriculture technologies are crystallizing into new market areas for cannabis

Not long before flower children of the Sixties started talking peace and love and smoking pot, an Israeli researcher made a landmark study deciphering the chemical makeup of its active ingredient, THC.

Using an 11-pound lump of Lebanese hash seized by the national police, Raphael Mechoulam identified and synthesized the first known cannabinoid from cannabis, among an estimated 60 to 85 known compounds. He’d go on to discover more.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose sends letter to mayor, warning dispensaries are illegal. 

OTTAWA -- The federal government drew battle lines with the City of Vancouver Thursday over the city’s plans to regulate marijuana dispensaries, saying they are dangerously close to legitimizing an illegal substance.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government said municipal governments have no authority to regulate and license businesses that sell pot.

“I am deeply concerned by reports that the City of Vancouver intends to discuss a proposal to regulate illegal drug dispensaries at an upcoming council meeting,” Health Minister Rona Ambrose told Mayor Gregor Robertson in a letter.

Sixty per cent of Vancouver’s marijuana businesses violate city hall’s proposed rules that they not be located within 300 metres of each other, and more than a third are too close to a school or community centre, an analysis by The Sun shows.

The proposed rules could eliminate 25 per cent of Vancouver’s 80 marijuana-related businesses, predicts the city, and will not “grandfather in” the existing shops. While many of the owners are grateful the city is trying to regulate the industry, nearly all are worried about the future of their locations and hope the rules will be tweaked after some consultation.

Economists predict $18 million in Oregon's first two years.

SALEM, Ore. (KOIN 6) — On Thursday, Oregon lawmakers asked for $10 million to get recreational marijuana sales underway in the state, following in the footsteps of Colorado and Washington. But KOIN 6 News learned the tax money generated by pot sales is expected to be much slimmer in Oregon.

As the first state with a full year of recreational marijuana sales, Colorado is the poster child for legal pot. Just last year, the state generated $700 million in marijuana sales — about half recreational and have medicinal.

Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Cruise Shipping, Shahine Robinson has called on Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeil to pull together a working group to exploit the new provisions of the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act as it relates to the use and cultivation of ganja. 

“I am calling on the Minister to establish a small and efficient working group, inclusive of the Health Ministry, Customs and other critical stakeholders to review and assess the amendments and put in a place of programme of work ultimately aimed at enhancing the benefits to Jamaica,” said Robinson in a release.

ST ANDREW, Jamaica — The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ganja Growers and Producers Association as a prospective partner in the growing of ganja.

The signing is scheduled for Friday at UWI at 12:00 pm.

On Monday, UWI was granted a licence by the Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell, which permits the Mona campus to engage independent contractors or other approved bodies in the growing of Cannabis Plants for the purpose of conducting research.

The price of legal recreational marijuana is down to an average of $12 per gram in Washington state lately. Last summer, it was as high as $30 per gram.

One justification for making recreational marijuana legal in Colorado, Washington, and perhaps elsewhere soon is the hope that it will help put an end to the black market, which is unregulated and untaxed and has been known to involve gangs, drug cartels, and crime far beyond the low-level dealing of weed. But it’ll be all but impossible to stop the black market if its prices are substantially cheaper than rates on the up-and-up.

Ever since the SEC cracked down on marijuana-related investments in 2014, potential investors have been painfully aware of the need to conduct adequate due diligence on the early-stage companies that come courting. Last year’s crisis focused on thinly-traded penny stocks.

It's like techstars, but for cannabis!

"At no time in this office should you ever be intoxicated on any substance."

That's not typically part of the opening spiel when welcoming a roomful of budding entrepreneurs to your business boot camp, but then Micah Tapman is not running your typical startup session.

"I know the parties can be a little lively," Tapman, a partner in the new-business accelerator Canopy Boulder, continued. "But you’re a founder in funding mode."

Some of the founders in the room were dressed the part in business casual, while others went for the ultra-casual look: ripped jeans and printed T-shirts.

More than two years after Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, a small but growing number of publicly traded companies are betting their futures on the hope of a thriving legal market for pot-based products. Bloomberg Intelligence identified 55 public companies whose business is based largely or completely on legal marijuana, and whose shares traded at $0.10 or more as of April 15th. These wildly fluctuating penny stocks aren’t for the faint of heart.