In a test starting 2018, therapeutic marijuana will be legal in Denmark for 1,500 patients suffering from chronic diseases. Danish farmers are lobbying the government to allow them to satisfy this new market, Dagens Nyheter reports.

Since it's currently illegal to grow marijuana in Denmark, cannabis for the trial is being imported from the state-run production of the Netherlands. 

But as the only producer for medicinal marijuana in Europe the Netherlands can only supply a tenth of the demand for therapeutic cannabis the Danish test group is facing. Should the test result in permanent legalization of medicinal marijuana the problem will become all the more acute.  

On Thursday, CanPay announced the first debit payment solution for the expanding legal marijuana industry has become available to retailers and consumers in the states of Washington, Oregon and Colorado. The service has already launched in 15 retail stores across Washington and Colorado, solving the cash-only problem that troubles the legal cannabis industry.

The first three months of 2016 saw spending on spirits exceed weed by $54.8 million.

This lead was reduced to $37 million in the April-June period. The alcohol statistics do not include wine and beer sales.

On November 16, Denver became the first US city to legalize marijuana in bars, restaurants and other businesses throughout the Colorado capital. The catch is that pot smoking will not be allowed inside, but it may signify an important step on the way to more widespread acceptance.

Marijuana sales in the US state of Washington have for the first time exceeded $200 million in the second quarter of 2016. Washington is one of a small number of states which went the legalization route, raking in massive dividends.

“Maybe it’ll make your slightly racist uncle a little bit more tolerable.”

First you'll hit the grocery store for a turkey, or sweet potatoes, or pie. Then maybe the liquor store for a bottle of wine to bring to dinner. And then, depending on where you live, perhaps the dispensary, for an extra Thanksgiving pick-me-up—some marijuana.

THE Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) expects to grant conditional licences by the end of the year for the growing and processing of ganja for medicinal and therapeutic purposes and research and development.

Chairman of the CLA Board, Hyacinth Lightbourne, told JIS News that the entity has received 89 applications.

Of the number, 25 are for cultivating ganja, 18 for processing, 14 are for research and development, eight for transporting, and the remainder are for retailing. 

The applications are now being processed. “After all the paperwork has been submitted, we have to evaluate the information given as well as conduct a thorough background check on the applicants,” Lightbourne pointed out.

Sales of marijuana products in Washington state have for the first time surpassed $200 million in a quarter.

Other news outlets report that residents and visitors bought more marijuana than ever before in the second quarter of 2016, based on an analysis of purchase and tax records from two state agencies.

In the first quarter of 2016 - January, February, and March - people spent $54.8 million more on spirits than marijuana, which includes the cost of the products and its associated taxes. By the second quarter - April, May, and June - that gap closed to nearly $37 million. Those amounts include taxes levied by the state on those products. Spirits sales do not include wine and beer. Marijuana sales include all cannabis products, but not paraphernalia.

As people are celebrating the legal sale of marijuana in the US, the burgeoning cannabis industry has gone from a curiosity to a bonafide booming market.

A new report by a leading marijuana industry investment and research firm found that legal cannabis sales jumped 17%, to $5.4 billion, in 2015 and they will grow by a whopping 25% this year to reach $6.7 billion in total US sales.

According to an INC.com report, there are also sizable and completely legal industries outside of the US, like Israel's 10-year-old medical industry. As governments from Germany to Australia to the UK are on the verge of legalising some form of marijuana, the global opportunity is coming into focus.

Witnessing the birth of an industry is the best way to describe what’s happened in the Canadian stock market in the past couple of weeks.

MedMen likens itself, as many cannabis companies do, to an early tech startup. Its West Hollywood dispensary looks a bit like an Apple store, with samples of product in polished glass cases and information about each on iPads. In a grow facility in Sun Valley, north of Los Angeles, marijuana plants grow in coconut fiber, sustained by drip irrigation and marked by thin plastic labels stuck in soil. Beyond the dispensary and cultivation center, the company offers "turnkey management services" to others in the cannabis space and boasts a $100 million venture capital fund.

This is the future of legal marijuana in California: Diversification, slick branding and professional investment.

Quietly on election night, overshadowed by the epic battle between blue and red, the map of America grew greener. Voters in four states — California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine — chose to legalize recreational marijuana. In Florida, Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota, ballot measures passed allowing pot to be used for medical purposes. (Only Arizona bucked the trend, saying no to recreational weed).

About 60 percent of Americans now live in a state where cannabis is legal or soon to be legal in some form. And with marijuana use on a steady march toward normalization, if not outright national legalization, the booming cannabis industry appears bound for even greater growth.