Betsy Ross stitched the first American flag using hemp and actor Woody Harrelson was once threatened with jail time for growing the crop.

Today, retailers from Whole Foods Market Inc. WFM, -0.17%   to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT, +0.01%   sell bags of shelled organic hemp seed for snacking, BMW stuffs some of its car seats with hemp, a hemp derivatives exchange has launched and an advocacy group, GrowHempColorado, wants to tap cryptocurrency for hemp transactions.

Eaze fulfills a simple function: Push button, get pot. 

The average order is around $10 and cannabis can be delivered in as little as 15 minutes, said Eaze CEO Keith McCarty. 

But unlike its customers — marijuana dispensaries — Eaze is a tech company and one of a growing number of cannabis tech start-ups using data to offer products and services to the pot industry. 

Buying and selling greenhouses in the Salinas Valley was never going to be the stuff of a reality TV show. But it was a good, quiet living for commercial Realtor Chuck Allen.

Then marijuana came to the valley. Now, agricultural real estate is booming.

The largely empty greenhouses where flowers once were grown are fetching multimillion-dollar prices, and Allen, 76, is raking in commissions bigger than many people’s annual salary. A couple of weeks ago, he closed on a $2.6-million deal that netted him $78,000. 

“It’s kinda fun, actually,” said Allen, who works for Keller Williams. “A year ago, I didn’t even know what it looked like. I thought they were Christmas trees.”

A stream of new customers dropped into the Weeds Glass & Gifts store on Bank Street Monday to purchase dried weed, cannabis cookies, brownies and oils.

They flashed membership cards from the seven Ottawa marijuana dispensaries closed in police raids last week, said Weeds manager Kristina Simpson.

The customers were politely turned away unless they could prove they need marijuana for medical reasons, said Simpson.

Police investigators found the seven raided shops did not restrict their sales to medical patients, said Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau. He said he hopes the raids send a warning to all dispensaries.

Creso Pharma has signed a deal with two European companies as part of a strategy to target the pet medical marijuana industry, the company announced in a press release. The agreement will see the Australian Stock Exchange-listed company work with A&H, a Dutch veterinary product manufacturer, and Grieving Holdings Netherland, a wholesaler, to develop products for pet owners and veterinarians.

1620 Solutions, an initiative by Veronica Carpio and Edgar Hemm in Colorado educates hemp and Cannabis farmers about Bitcoin and its advantages.

The product would be a long way off, but the company says edibles have become popular business in places like Colorado where pot is legal.

Could you one day be adding a half dozen bud bagels and some “herb” cream cheese to your Kettleman’s order?

“We are interested in your thoughts on this for bagels,” reads a post added to the local business's Facebook page on Friday, linking to an article about cannabis being declared kosher. “Please let us know if you'd buy bagels if this became legal.”

“We are interested in what people's thoughts are,” continues the message. “Many businesses in Colorado are incorporating marijuana into some of their food and drink. We just wanted to see people's opinions. We are a long way from deciding if we would ever use it.”

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Therapix BioSciences has filed for a modest $12 million initial public offering as it looks to build up its portfolio of cannabinoid-based meds.

The 12-year-old biotech is already listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and also trades on the over-the-counter (OTC) market in the U.S., but is now looking to step up and be listed on the Nasdaq, where its ticker will be $TRPX, according to Renaissance Capital.

A major new Australian industry could grow up around medicinal cannabis, with possibilities for global export opening up further down the track.

The Narcotics Drugs Amendment Act 2016 came into force last week giving the green light to cultivating and manufacturing cannabis for medicinal or scientific purposes in Australia and offering chronically ill patients some relief, where previously they were forced to source cannabis illegally, often of dubious quality.

This week, voters in five states, including California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, will consider whether to legalize recreational marijuana. Four other states will decide whether to allow medical use. But regardless of the outcome on November 8, marijuana will remain prohibited under US law. Despite being illegal at the federal level, the US marijuana industry is worth over $5 billion, and it’s becoming increasingly dependent on technology. Wherever there is technological innovation, inventors use patent law to protect what they create. Yet few people realize that marijuana-related inventions can be patented.