The German government finally passed its legalization framework for medical cannabis consumption in March 2017. The country’s market is expected to record modest growth with its high 82 million population and a policy that allows prescriptions to be paid through health insurance plans, thus potentially encouraging patients to explore medical cannabis health benefits.

Local marijuana producers with vast experience in mass growing of high quality product and hungry to capture the lucrative €12 – €15 a gram (roughly C$17 – C$21.75 per gram) German medical cannabis market, have been taking positions in growing their international business portfolios.

When the Yakama Nation announced in 2013 that it had no interest in selling pot, its chairman said the tribe had “a long and unpleasant history with marijuana, just as we have had with alcohol.”

But other tribes are raring to gain a foothold in the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry – and they say it would be a mistake for President Donald Trump’s administration to try to stop them.

There are certainly several disputes and controversies within the Oregon cannabis industry and community, but none greater than marijuana testing standards. Last October, stringent testing guidelines went into place, making Oregon regulated cannabis “safer than food.” The standards for Oregon cannabis were so high, that reports surfaced that a vast majority of California cannabis on the shelves at local dispensaries would fail Oregon’s pesticide testing standards.  However, those strict standards created shortages and price increases throughout the Oregon market, especially for edibles and extracts.

The Reno City Council shut down a proposal for a six-month moratorium on recreational marijuana establishments on Wednesday. 

Several industry leaders representing local medical marijuana establishments appeared at the council meeting to talk council members down from pursuing a moratorium as the state approaches its own summer deadline to begin an early start recreational marijuana program. 

"Neither the city of Sparks nor Washoe County have passed moratoriums, which means folks may head over to Sparks and (other dispensaries in) Washoe County for marijuana," said Joey Gilbert, a co-owner of Mynt Dispensary in downtown Reno. 

Hundreds of applicants have asked for licenses to grow or sell medical marijuana in Pennsylvania -- including dozens in the state's southeastern corner -- but state officials on Wednesday refused to disclose the locations of any proposed facilities.

In their first accounting of the flood of applications, Health Department officials said they received more than 500 packages by the March 20 submission deadline, and have sifted through 258 applications. Among those were 31 applications to grow and process medical marijuana in Philadelphia or its surrounding suburbs, and 61 to dispense the drug in an eight-county region including the city.

Friday could be a very bad day for marijuana growers. That’s because, tucked into the vast spending bill Congress needs to pass to avoid yet another government shutdown, is the extension of a provision designed to prevent the federal government from prosecuting marijuana growers in states that have legalized cannabis. If it’s removed, it would allow more than a dozen currently stalled federal prosecutions of weed growers up and down the West Coast to go through.

 The recreational marijuana industry is catching up to the medical industry in Colorado in terms of the number of licenses issued by the state, and a tiny northeastern Colorado town has one of the highest concentration of licenses in the state.

The new insight into the state’s burgeoning marijuana industry comes from a compilation of state data by Paul Seaborn, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, in his latest report: “Colorado Marijuana Market Report.”

Across Canada, specialty medical clinics are making money within the government's legal medical marijuana regime by acting as middlemen between doctors, patients and licensed marijuana producers.

The clinics are in the business of taking referrals from doctors and arranging consultations with physicians who assess potential patients and write prescriptions for those who qualify. Clinic staff then educate those patients on how to use medical marijuana, and register them with the licensed medical marijuana producers who will ultimately provide the patients with legal cannabis by mail.

Some of the clinics also receive money from those licensed producers, raising questions about medical ethics and transparency.

Although pharmaceutical companies have the most to lose from the legalization of marijuana, no company has taken it as far as Insys Therapeutics (INSY); the company responsible for developing and oversubscribing a fentanyl spray that resulted in hundreds of deaths and overdoses.

In 2016, the disgraced pharmaceutical company donated $500,000 to promote opposition to Arizona’s recreational marijuana ballot initiative.

11 Execs Arrested for Overprescribing and Kickback Schemes

While growing cannabis is not all that complicated with the proper planning, there are some strains that are harder to cultivate successfully than others. Cultivators should carefully evaluate their growing space, budget, experience and patience before choosing a strain to grow at home. It could make all the difference.

Growing cannabis is a fairly straightforward process. Once you have mastered the art its not rocket science.

However, remember that not all cannabis is created equal.

Commercially bred strains take less care and work to grow. If you are trying to cultivate a rare if not landrace variety however, be prepared for a bit more of a challenge.