A number of US states have legalized cannabis, and many more are expected to follow. Therefore, the industry's explosive growth, attracts large investors. Berlingske Business Magazine took to speed dating between entrepreneurs and investors in San Francisco.

"Whoever wins on the Internet, is the one who wins in the US." Says Peter Muhlmann, founder of the website Trustpilot. Now the company captures the market for user reviews in the United States.

Like any working mom, Denise Pollicella is busy.

The Howell-area attorney, a mother of two, balances her legal cases with other duties, such as taking her daughter to dance class.

Yet for the past several years, she’s also joined efforts to draft model legislation that would revise laws governing the growth, sale and distribution of medical marijuana in Michigan.

It’s legislation she believes is long overdue.

“Seven years ago, Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved the legalization of medical marijuana, and yet the Legislature hasn’t acted,” she said.

Marijuana use is legal in Michigan for patients with a doctor’s prescription and a state certified ID card. Patients can also designate a caregiver, who also must be certified by the state.

Many marijuana businesses are running solely on cash operated businesses, having to pay tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash money for protection, utilities and employee payouts. This is causing a safety concern for those that partake in the marijuana industry forcing them to carry high amounts of cash at all times quickly becoming targets for criminals.

Banks are wary of dealing with cannabusinesses because of the fear of being prosecuted for conspiring money laundering under federal law. Many banks have been refusing businesses due to this issue. The banking problem is even spilling over in to state politics regarding marijuana laws.

CEN Biotech, a company that soared to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars last year on claims that it was being licensed to build the world’s largest medical marijuana facility in Canada, is under investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission.

The regulator said Wednesday it is looking into the company and its parent firm, but did not provide further details, such as how long the investigation has been going on or if regulators in the United States are involved.

“The OSC has an active investigation into this matter,” Carolyn Shaw-Rimmington, spokeswoman for the OSC, said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail.

In the blink of an eye, global debates about cannabis regulation have shifted from “whether” to “how.” In 2014, Uruguay became the first nation to explicitly regulate cannabis from seed to sale. Its preferred strategy? State-regulated production, cannabis clubs, and personal growing. Meanwhile, four U.S. states and the District of Columbia have moved ahead with legal regulation, Colorado and Washington being the first, and the federal government seems unlikely to intervene. More states, possibly even California, look set to follow. Likewise, in the rest of the world, there are a number of gray-area regulatory systems, including in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain. All offer insights into how the United States—and other countries—might tackle the “how.”

THE AMERICAN MODEL

To help pay for its upcoming legal battle with the City of Los Angeles, medical marijuana delivery service Nestdrop has launched a GoFundMe campaign to seek donations from medicinal cannabis patients, fellow tech companies, dispensaries and supporters across the country.

After sending a letter to the City Attorney’s office offering to work with them on sensible medical marijuana enforcement -- which went unanswered -- Nestdrop has moved forward with appealing the injunction.

Advocates for medical marijuana are quick to point out that 23 states have passed some sort of therapeutic cannabis law. All of them are different. They range from the broadly worded (California) to severely restrictive (New Jersey). The truth is that only a handful of these states actually offer programs that serve a majority of patients. 

Robust programs are running in Maine, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and California. These states offer the widest array of access from home cultivation, collective gardens and professional dispensaries. The rest of the country struggles to compete for a similar level of compassion. 

Anne Glazer, a partner at the Stoel Rives law firm, cautions marijuana sellers to skip calling their products "organic".

Not long after Oregon voted to legalize recreational marijuana use in November, attorney Anne Glazer began noticing producers touting their wares as “organic”.

Glazer, who specializes in helping food and beverage clients of the Stoel Rives law firm stay compliant with food and drug labeling laws, was troubled.

“It’s being used a lot,” she said, citing both packaging and advertising.

But it’s a no-go for the industry as it works to operate legally within Oregon.