Maybe you’ve heard this one. A little off-colour, it involves an old bull and a young bull comparing strategies for romantic conquest. The young bull’s preferred approach depends on haste and surprise, and promises unreliable and limited results, despite his enthusiasm. The old bull’s is predicated on patience and theatre, and the punchline leaves us confident that his results are going to be more satisfying.

I have to confess, I didn’t actually get the joke myself until well into adult life, but I can be slow about these things. Still, its truth as a marketing parable really only resonates after a bit of experience: The less interest there already is for what you’re trying to sell, the more expensive and uncertain your effort will be.

Hey you, yes you, Smokey Joe over there with your dime bag or your “medical” marijuana card. Why don’t you put the vaporizer down and do something constructive like, oh, maybe go work for Privateer Holdings.

Privateer invests in legal marijuana companies, and it just raised $75 million for a total of $82 million. That’s a lot of cash for grass. Its clean-cut crew has invested in three firms so far: Tilray, which focuses on medical marijuana in Canada; Leafly, which helps users explore strains and find dispensaries; and Marley Natural, which will offer hemp-infused lotions.

VANCOUVER -- Travis Williams works in the Cannabis Culture lounge on Davie Street, which does not sell weed but charges a $5 fee for people to bring in and smoke their own. A separate marijuana dispensary, run by Eden Medicinal Society, is located in the same building with a door that opens into the hazy lounge.

The businesses appear to violate two of the city’s proposed new regulations: that two marijuana-related business cannot operate within 300 metres of each other and that they cannot be located within 300 metres of a school.

Lord Roberts Elementary in the West End is just 180 metres from the two outfits on Davie.

The Michigan House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved on Tuesday an amendment to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act that will protect landlords on prohibiting the use of marijuana on their property, including medicinal marijuana.

The amendment, introduced as Senate Bill 72 by state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, states that a landlord is not required to lease residential property to any person who smokes or cultivates marijuana on the premises if the lease stipulated a prohibition on the drug.

Attorney and Michigan Cannabis Development Association spokeswoman Denise Pollicella testified in favor of the amendment, and said it will prevent “unnecessary litigations.”

The City of Vancouver is introducing a plan to regulate all marijuana-related businesses to achieve “a careful balance between ensuring adequate availability for those in need and ensuring community health, safety, security, aesthetics, equity and enjoyment of property.”

In a press release, the City cites the lack of a clear regulatory framework for how and where marijuana businesses operate and emphasizes how quickly the industry has grown in Vancouver, with a growth rate of 100 per cent per year in marijuana-related businesses, including from 60 to 80 in the last four months alone.

Another California tribe has announced its venture into the medical marijuana business. The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians in Thermal, about 32 miles southeast of Palm Springs, recently entered into a partnership with Red Crow, a Native-owned cannabis company that designs, builds, manages and finances marijuana growing facilities for medical purposes.

“We are an impoverished tribe with a small casino that is barely keeping its head above water. We don’t have the cash flow like other tribes that have found success,” Mary Belardo, executive assistant to the tribal chairwoman, explained the reason for striking the deal. “The whole concept has potential to be an economic boom for the tribe, if done properly.”

The trend prompted Founders Fund, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm run by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, to enter the fray in January. The company agreed to invest millions in Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm in Seattle that's backing several private marijuana start-ups, including Tilray, a Canadian medicinal pot company, and Marley Natural, a weed purveyor launched by heirs of the late reggae star and ganja devotee.

In brief

The medical use of marijuana by the public healthcare system of Costa Rica, known as La Caja, could generate $9 million in revenue, a figure that would be equivalent to 0.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Such is a legislative proposal that was presented last year by lawmaker Marvin Atencio, who represents the ruling Citizens’ Action political party (Spanish initials: PAC).

It is on trend these days to support the growing marijuana business model. There are two parts of the discussion – medical marijuana that is now legalized in twenty-three states and the District of Columbia; as well as the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in four states. On CNN’s Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution hosted by Sanjay Gupta M.D., President Obama reiterated that, “I’m on record as saying not only do I think carefully prescribed medical use of marijuana may in fact be appropriate and we should follow the science as opposed to ideology.”