Israeli ministers on Sunday endorsed a draft bill to legalise export of cannabis for approved medical use, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked's office said, without elaborating.

Adoption by the ministerial committee on legislation, which meets outside the full cabinet, means that the draft will now move forward as a government bill.

No date was set for a first reading.

Shaked's office said that a scheduled debate on decriminalising marijuana use in favour of fines and treatment was put back until next Sunday.

Although the recreational use of cannabis is currently illegal in the Jewish state, for the past 10 years its therapeutic use has not only been permitted but encouraged.

Almost since the moment of its founding, Women Grow has been one of the cannabis industry’s most important and powerful business networking organizations. Three years ago the group started with a handful of entrepreneurs in Denver. Now more than 1,500 members meet in 35 cities on the first Thursday of every month.

Before the days of the internet and Facebook statuses, marketing was a constant uphill battle for a lot of startups and small businesses.

Today, it is still an uphill battle. However, digital marketing has made the task of establishing a business presence much less intimidating. In fact, some might argue that it levels the playing field and gives the smaller guys an opportunity to shine in a way the big enterprises simply cannot.

A county attorney's office in Minnesota expects to file charges soon, following completion of an investigation into Vireo Health's alleged transport of $500,000 of medical marijuana products from Minnesota to New York.

No further information was available Thursday. Brian Lutes, an assistant county attorney in Wright County, Minn., said details would be forthcoming.

In a statement, Vireo said it has not been the target of Minnesota investigators' probe.

"While we are aware of an investigation by the Wright County Attorney, we have no information as to its status except that we have been told our company is NOT a focus of the investigation," the company said in a statement.

Back in the day people used to put perfume or cologne on to mask the smell of weed. In 2017, people are finally embracing the skunky smell of the sticky icky.

Perfume company Xyrena is launching what it calls the first "strain-specific cannabis perfumes." While marijuana perfumes aren't entirely a new thing, Xyrena is taking weed scents out of shops like Spencer's Gifts and giving them a classier approach. 

What happened

A month after former key executives were arrested for an alleged kickback scheme, and in the wake of its presentation to investors at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Jan. 9, shares in Insys Therapeutics (NASDAQ:INSY) climbed 11.3% in January, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

So what

Insys Therapeutics has been on the hot seat for more than a year, and ongoing investigations into marketing practices of its opioid spray Subsys resulted in the arrest of former CEO Michael Babich and other executives on Dec. 8, 2016. 

Marijuana regulators in Alaska narrowly rejected a proposal Thursday that would have made the state the first in the nation to allow marijuana consumers to use the pot they buy at the retail stores selling it.

In a 3-2 vote, the Alaska Marijuana Control board decided not to allow it, frustrating industry officials and business owners who vowed to continue to press for some sort of allowable marijuana use at retail shops.

The proposed new rules would have let people buy marijuana products in authorized stores and go into separate store areas to partake.

Board member Mark Springer, who was among those who voted to reject the measure, suggested moving slowly on the issue, citing uncertainty with how President Donald Trump's administration might view marijuana.

Marijuana reform is sweeping across the United States, with 8 states (and D.C.) voting to legalize marijuana for adult use, and nearly 30 states having legal medical marijuana laws on the books. But, despite recent victories, support for reform at an all-time high, and a booming marijuana industry in America, researching marijuana is still a tough thing to do. Marijuana is of course considered to be a Schedule I controlled substance by the federal government. The same federal government that itself grows marijuana for research purposes. It’s a brutal irony that has hampered the process of unlocking all of the medical benefits of the marijuana plant.

Last year, the first-ever Cannabis Wedding Expo was held in Denver, Colorado, bringing hundreds of soon-to-be-newlyweds together with 35 companies that offer cannabis-centric wedding services. 

As the social stigma surrounding cannabis continues to fade, the minds behind the Cannabis Wedding Expo are prepared for a major expansion in 2017. This year, the exhibition will be hosted in Denver (February 19), Portland (March 26), and San Francisco (April 30), and is expected to welcome around 1,500 total attendees and 75 different companies.

You can now hold a little WEED in your portfolio.

Medical marijuana producer Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED) has officially changed its stock market ticker to WEED.

The company helped "ring the bell" to open trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange this morning as it began trading under the new symbol.

Canopy is Canada's largest publicly traded cannabis company. It had been listed on the exchange under CGC.

It says the ticker change comes at a transformative time for the company.

The company recently closed its deal to acquire fellow pot producer Mettrum Health Corp.