After a certain amount of time, counter-cultures lose their subversiveness the same way the flower power era of the late 1960’s eventually did. Hippies become Yuppies and “Good Vibrations” is used to sell cans of Sunkist.

Similarly, the meaning and cultural significance of today’s marijuana icons and stoner-culture symbols are eroding in Canada and other countries around the world. With the shedding of taboos, marijuana is clearly ready for prime time. But just how big will Canada’s marijuana industry become?

For many buzz seekers, coffee and cannabis go together like cream and sugar, or Cheech and Chong.

The hits just keep coming for City College of San Francisco, which earlier this month retained its accreditation for the next seven years and recently received a $9 million earmark from the Board of Supervisors to fund free tuition for city residents.

Medical marijuana in Arizona generated $280 million in sales, $30 million in tax revenue

Medical marijuana is a growing industry across the country, and that's especially true here in Arizona.

The latest numbers from the Arizona Department of Health Services show there are now more card holders than ever before, and they are also using more cannabis than ever before.

All of it comes on the heels of an election that saw voters narrowly reject an effort to legalize recreational use of pot in our state.

"I think a lot of people were waiting to see if it's going to pass. It's a lot easier for 'hey I'm going to try cannabis for whatever medical conditions," said Lilach Mazor Power of Giving Tree Wellness.

The cannabis industry has yet to find its way in marketing, which isn't altogether that surprising as the industry is new. The potential lucrative market makes it, and everyone involved in it, a bit frenzied and unfocused.

Of course, this no traditional industry. It's owned and run by entrepreneurs. They are risk takers and passionate about what they're doing. But, too many voices are telling them what to do, chasing them down too many paths and consuming their energies. As a result and overall, the cannabis industry lags behind its contemporaries in traditional marketing expertise.

Two hundred marijuana plants started growing in a large industrial building in Kitchener’s south end on Friday.

They belong to James E. Wagner Cultivation, which is the 38th company to receive a licence to grow marijuana from Health Canada – and the first such company in Kitchener.

“We’re excited to be able to finally help the patients of Canada navigate the challenges of the medicinal cannabis market,” company president Nathan Woodworth said in an interview.

The company started with a group of Waterloo Region residents who were licensed to produce marijuana for themselves.

Over time, their association evolved into a decision to develop a larger operation.

State regulators rolled out more details for Ohio's new medical marijuana program Friday, prompting members of a panel advising the process to question the high fees proposed for marijuana business owners. 

Under the proposed rules, medical marijuana product manufacturers, called processors, would pay $100,000 a year for one of 40 available licenses. Large-scale marijuana growers would pay $200,000 a year for a cultivator license. And retail dispensaries would pay $80,000 every two years to be licensed.  

Before Brad Austin arrived at work one recent morning, his stock market investments were up by $4,000. The bump was something the sales manager at an Edmonton car dealership has become accustomed to, despite having no prior trading experience and no financial advisers to guide him.

Austin says he knows what he’s doing, but he also has luck on his side. He won $20,000 playing slot machines at a casino in August and decided to drop all of the spoils, plus another $5,000 of his own cash, into another big bet: cannabis stocks.

He has not been disappointed.

Austin made $70,000 — close to what he’d earn at the dealership in an entire year — only five months into what he expects will be a years-long investment play.

The Waynesboro Area School Board this week finalized a letter of support for a proposed medical marijuana growing and processing facility, saying the district appreciates the economic development that could come with the project in Wharf Road Industrial Park.

The school board noted that it supports the industrial growth, but will not take a position on the potential benefits of marijuana for medical conditions.

A letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Health notes the district receives federal funding for some of its K-12 programs and recognizes that federal law does not legalize medical marijuana.

Until recently, Killian Wells hated the smell of pot. "When people smoked around me, it smelled like skunk," he said, "or worse—like skunk and B.O."

But then Wells, a recent transplant from New York to Los Angeles, visited a cannabis dispensary. Having diagnosed him with anxiety, Wells' doctor handed him a prescription for medicinal marijuana. So Wells found himself with his head over rows and rows of glass apothecary jars, inhaling the aroma of Sativa and Indica and scores of hybrids.

"I had no idea there was a good side to marijuana smell," he said. "I felt like so much could be done with the many little nuances of the aroma profiles."

What could be done, Wells decided, was make a fragrance.