As one of the fastest growing sectors in America, legal cannabis and its ancillary markets are attracting investors eager to take part in the “green rush,” and opportunities for partnerships  abound.

“2014 was the year where the cannabis industry went from being an interesting cocktail conversation to something any serious business person has given a fleeting thought,” said Troy Dayton, cofounder of The ArcView Group.

There’s a yoga class in Toronto that comes with an added perk: smoking weed.

No, it’s not a late April Fool’s Day joke.

At Ganja Yoga – located in High Times café in Kensington Market – each class begins with a few tokes of marijuana via a vaporizer, which is passed around a circle.

The desired result is heightened relaxation, spiritual growth, and focus.

Often, a musician will play a guitar, adding to the chilled out vibe.

Health-conscious stoners will appreciate the use of the vaporizer as opposed to a pipe or rolled joints, which heats the hemp to create THC rather than burning it. It’s basically the “healthy” way to get high.

The latest innovation in cannabis tourism and travel is carving out a niche among vacation and travel accommodation rental websites by offering access to cannabis-friendly lodging worldwide.

Recently launched Boulder, Colo.-based Bud and Breakfast  is being heralded as the Airbnb for marijuana consumers in startup watch lists.

A Chicago-based startup said it has developed a system that will allow legal cannabis retailers to sell their products without taking cash or making a standard debit card or credit card transaction.

According to Bill Drevant, president of VertePay.com, the company has partnered with an established Illinois software firm called Bestinc that writes software platforms for check cashing and has been open since 1982. The firm modified the software to create an essentially closed loop system that will allow a cannabis customer to purchase cannabis without having to use cash or make a transaction with a bank card.

Just as the fear of privatization spurred Pennsylvania's state-run liquor monopoly to act more like a profit-oriented business, talk of allowing competition with Uncle Sam's marijuana monopoly seems to have encouraged a more customer-oriented attitude at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is currently the country's only legal source of cannabis for research. NIDA's recently revised online menu of marijuana available to qualifying researchers suggests the agency is aiming to please in new ways. "NIDA appears to finally be loosening longtime restrictions on cannabis research," says Allen St.

The reverse takeover provides the U.S. and Canadian companies with an entry to the Australian equity market.

The plan to open a new medical marijuana dispensary at a downtown Vancouver condo complex has riled up some residents of 1675 Hornby Street. 

Maxine Clough, one of the residents at the condo near Hornby St. and Beach Ave., said that while she and her neighbours have no problem with medical marijuana, their building is simply the wrong location. She has started a petition to stop the store from opening and has collected roughly 140 signatures so far.

"We have the Montessori school just down the bike path. We have another pre-school on Burrard Street, where the children go by here all the time," she says. "We just don't think this is the right atmosphere [for a medical marijuana store]."

The association startup space is budding just as much as the for-profit space is in Silicon Valley. Check out three examples of new groups that are starting to make an impact on fresh industries.

Association executives who were around in an organization’s early days might look back on those times fondly—long hours and late nights, learning by trial and error, and panicking when growth exceeded expectations. For associations still in their formative years, however, making it through each week, still standing, is cause for celebration.

Crop King Seeds is the first branded marijuana company in Canada that sells seeds for cannabis genetics at over 140 stores across Canada. 

With their head office located in the Penthouse of Gastown’s Dominion building, Crop King Seeds has over 20 strains of marijuana and 13 employees gearing up to become the next “Molson Canadian” of North America’s fastest growing industry.

Kyle (last name withheld), the owner of Crop King Seeds has been asked over and over during his time in the industry; why the marijuana business? “Why not? I could have gone into the trendy Micro Brewery industry but then I realized that alcohol is far more harmful and destructive than marijuana. I wanted to be a pioneer, a game changer to bring a positive change to our country and communities.”

Someday this will be a case study in business schools: the creation of a marijuana franchise starting with a lone store in a cute Victorian house on Main Street in Breckenridge. For viewers beyond Colorado, “High Profits” on CNN, an eight-part docu-series premiering April 19, may seem an outrageous curiosity. For locals accustomed to media scrutiny of the state’s legalized recreational weed industry, it’s just one more reality TV effort, hyped for suspense.