Recreational marijuana sales in Oregon produced $60.2 million in state tax ­revenue in 2016, the first year of state-taxed pot sales.

For much of the year, ­marijuana sellers collected a 25 percent sales tax. 

To produce the $60.2 million in tax revenue reported by the state Department of Revenue on Friday, total retail sales of marijuana and ­pot-laced products last year would have had to equal about $241 million. 

Marijuana tax revenues ­exceeded projections, said Mazen ­Malik, senior economist for the Oregon Legislative Revenue Office. He had estimated ­marijuana sales would ­produce $44 million during the year, $16 million less than what came in.

At a school career day event recently, a few students approached San Joaquin Delta College horticulture instructor Michael Toscano and asked him, in so many words: "Can you teach me how to grow marijuana?"

They were serious, he said. With the passage of Proposition 64 last November legalizing recreational marijuana use, a brand-new industry will emerge in the years to come with legitimate jobs for those willing to learn.

Which is why Toscano is now unofficially marketing some of the classes he teaches at Delta as learning opportunities for those who want a future in the pot business.

The “Green Rush” may have already started, but it’s not too late to grab a seat on the emerald entrepreneurial wagon.

Such were the sentiments expressed by some guest speakers at Hacker Lab’s startup expo Thursday night, focusing on tech and the marijuana industry. Recent numbers from the University of Pacific indicate the region could benefit significantly from the cannabis industry.

The solution to reducing deadly seizures could be a puff of a marijuana cigarette, but for many lawmakers around the world, legal medical pot is still considered taboo. 

The marijuana industry had an incredible 2016, and pro-legalization enthusiasts are hoping that momentum carries over into 2017.

Heading into 2016, there were 23 states that had legalized medical cannabis and four (Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska) that had legalized recreational pot. This in itself was impressive considering that, just two decades prior (1996), California became the first state to legalize any form of marijuana with its Compassionate Use Act for a select few medical patients. In 2017, five additional states wound up legalizing medical cannabis, two of which did so entirely through the legislative process, while residents in four more states (California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada) approved recreational marijuana initiatives.

As Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program continues to take shape, applications for grower/processors and for dispensaries are now available online.

Applications for medical marijuana growers and processors and for dispensaries are now available but a one month window for accepting applications won’t begin until February 20th.

“Through February 8th, potential applicants have the opportunity address questions concerning the application process to the Department,” said John Collins, Director of the Pennsylvania Health Department’s Office of Medical Marijuana. “We’ll be posting responses on the website.”

In November, Californians overwhelmingly voted to embrace pro-pot laws that clear the way toward creating the United States' biggest recreational marijuana market. Is California's marijuana market a boon to marijuana investors? Read on to see how big California's marijuana market could become.

First, some history

California pioneered medical marijuana legalization in the 1990s, but it has been slower to endorse laws that open up the recreational marijuana market.

An Oregon company wants to build a pot-friendly RV park.
 
A company that supplies warehouse space for marijuana growers is eyeing property near Lake Selmac in Josephine County.
 
The park will be called Smoke on the Water, Grow Condos Chief Executive Officer Wayne Zallen said.
 
If the project moves forward, the company hopes to expand with campgrounds in other marijuana-friendly states. The RV parks would include tent camping and a pot dispensary, he said.
 
The company already has a 15,000-square-foot facility in Eagle Point, Oregon, where it offers for lease or sale indoor grow spaces, which are all occupied. The company is also working toward building a 48,000-square-foot commercial marijuana processing facility in Eugene.

M Partners analyst Mason Brown says the Canadian marijuana legalization experience will be a “rollercoaster ride”, but says a few companies are poised to reap the lion’s share of the benefit.

In a special report, Brown said the beer industry is the best way to look at the way distribution of recreational cannabis in Canada.

Marijuana, the wonder plant as some call it is going through a liberation phase in the United States. In 37 out of 50 states have relaxed the laws regarding the sale and use of marijuana and its derivatives in the past few years. Most of these states approve of the medical use of marijuana while a handful also makes an exception for recreational use. But these relaxations come with riders to make it difficult for businesses dealing with cannabis.