Where cannabis is legal, employers can no longer drug test employees for THC, right? Wrong. For now.

In all 23 states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal (including the four states and D.C. where recreational marijuana is also legal), employers may drug test their employees and insist on a drug-free workplace. Few of the marijuana-friendly states require that employers accommodate employees who use cannabis, even if for medical use.

If you grow cannabis, then odds are you keep a journal to record your grow operation. Journals can be incredibly helpful tools, but they can be a bit of a mess as far as organization goes. You run the risk of having your journal getting damaged by the elements, which is the kind of problem you don’t want if you’re running a professional cannabis garden.

GrowBuddy, a cannabis tech startup based in Denver, Colorado, is on a mission to empower cultivators by providing an intuitive application that allows you to record every aspect of the cannabis cultivation process, from soil PH levels to environmental control conditions.

This ain’t your dad’s seedy dope den.

Illustrating the rapid professionalization of the cannabis industry thanks to its legalization, the Minerva Canna Group dispensary project in Albuqueque, NM and its interior designer Megan Stone — head of The High Road Design Studio — just took top honors in the Designer Dozen Award by Visual Merchandising and Store Design Magazine (VMSD). The Designer Dozen award showcases the best and brightest emerging retail designers under 35.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. offshoot that targets young, urban gardeners has acquired a Santa Rosa, California-based hydroponics company popular with marijuana growers.

Hawthorne Gardening Co., a Scotts subsidiary formed in October, purchased General Hydroponics Inc. and Bio-Organic Solutions Inc.

Terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition should position the company in the growing marijuana market.

The UpTake: Casey Craig isn't much different from any other startup founder, except that he's out on the frontier of legalized marijuana.

C asey Craig works 85 hours a week at his new business, a pace that's familiar to nearly every startup founder. He has his life savings, at least $300,000, tied up in the venture. He quit his stable job and struck out on his own. He spent months searching for the best team to give his business a chance of success.

But there's one big difference between Craig and the thousands of other startup founders in the state.

Rush of growers expected, but only 5 will be approved

Gary Smith grows millions of pounds of tomatoes in a greenhouse in Niagara County, but he is fighting the clock to rotate in a different crop soon so that he can harvest in time for sale next January. His new crop: marijuana.

Or, at least, he hopes it will be.

Smith is among hundreds of people poring over regulations the state Department of Health released last week that paves the way for medical marijuana to be sold in New York State by early next year.

The complex set of rules sets in motion an application period that is expected to see a rush of businesses trying to get a foothold in the state’s medical marijuana industry.

The 2014 elections created a lot of excitement among marijuana supporters, as voters in Oregon, Alaska, and the District of Columbia expanded the number of jurisdictions allowing recreational marijuana use. 

Twice a week at the office of Patrick Fasusi, District residents line up to ask the pain specialist to approve their use of medical marijuana. For most, the brief wait in the lobby is longer than their consultation.

As marijuana, which became legal for recreational use in the nation’s capital in February, continues to morph from contraband to commonplace, Fasusi’s clinic is a window into the ease with which some residents have been buying officially sanctioned pot for more than two years.

It was only a matter of time before the emerging legal cannabis industry began using one of America’s most popular business methods for rapid growth — franchising. This startup sector is wide-open spaces right now, and full of interesting players looking to grow fast and establish a national brand name.

The quest to franchise a legal cannabis business is even the subject of an upcoming CNN reality-TV series, High Profits, about Breckenridge Cannabis Club in Colorado.

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, has been a leading voice on how Colorado’s medical and recreational marijuana industries are regulated, carrying most of the most important bills and providing testimony and experts on nearly all of them.

Singer, 36, has represented House District 11 — which also includes northern Boulder County, most of Niwot, Allenspark and parts of Lyons — since 2012. He has undergraduate and master’s degrees in social work from Colorado State University. He is a former board member for the CSU Drug and Alcohol Task Force and the CSU Counseling Center.