Here’s how Stephen Colbert introduced Whoopi Goldberg on CBS’s Late Show last week: “My first guest is an actor, author, talk show host and has her own line of premium pot.”

Well, who doesn’t these days?

Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg and Tommy Chong are among the usual suspects who are pushing their own lines of specialty marijuana products.

“It’s almost gotten into the fad scenario at this point,” Harvard Business School marketing professor John Quelch tells USA TODAY Sports, “where celebrities almost feel obligated to attach themselves to the cause.”

Whoopi & Maya is a medical marijuana company that focuses on cannabis-infused salves, balms and edibles designed to relieve menstrual pain, according to the company’s website.

The Wild West of weed is on fire with entrepreneurial opportunities. Potpreneurs across America are legally growing, curing and cooking the skunky stuff in record numbers. As those who cultivate and sell the plant grow, so do the offshoot businesses sprouting up around them.

The controversial Mystic plant-research site that Monsanto Co. plans to shut down this year has drawn the interest of two groups looking into using the modern facilities for growing medical marijuana, First Selectman Rob Simmons said Monday.

Simmons' revelation came soon after a state website indicated that Monsanto had issued a formal notice of the closure, which will occur in two phases starting Oct. 29. The shutdown, announced last year, will result in the loss of 40 jobs locally, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification dated Aug. 29 and released Monday to The Day by the state Department of Labor.

Business leaders have estimated sales in Ontario for recreational marijuana will range between $1 billion to $2 billion by 2024 should it be legalized by the federal government.

So, the economic stakes are high — both locally and across the nation — should pot be legalized as planned.

That is why the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber is among groups pushing the provincial government to get going on what needs to be done to ease the transition toward marijuana legalization.

“Whether you agree with the decision or not, the federal government is proceeding on this,” said local chamber CEO Matt Marchand. “That’s already been decided.

Nearly a decade ago, Yohai Gild Golan, an experienced cannabis pioneer and founder of the medical-grade cannabis company Better, moved from California to Israel for the opportunity to do more for the medicinal marijuana industry. You read that correctly. Although many people perceive the West Coast of the United States as the center of cannabis progressivism, the Israeli government is among the most supportive of medicinal marijuana use in the world.

Marijuana is having its moment in American culture, with recreational pot use now legal in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts vote on recreational use in November. It’s a trend reflected in popular entertainment. Three TV series devoted to the subject air within the next month.

HBO’s New York-set “High Maintenance,” which bows Sept. 16, began as a web series in 2012; both iterations of the show follow an unnamed pot deliveryman (series co-creator Ben Sinclair) as he peddles his product to new clients each week.

MTV’s Los Angeles-set “Mary + Jane,” which launched Sept. 5, follows potrepreneurs Paige (Scout Durwood) and Jordan (Jessica Rothe), creators of a dope-delivery app.

Few individuals have had more of a prominent stature in marijuana culture than rapper Snoop Dogg. And to understand how far pop culture has come in demystifying pot, one has to look at the rapper’s career.

New report says post office could capitalize on legal pot sales through delivery and direct retail sales.

Could legalizing pot save Canada Post?

Canadians looking to use recreational marijuana could help boost the post office’s revenues and be part of the answer to its financial woes, a new report suggests.

“Through its currently unparalleled national delivery network, Canada Post stands to capture a large part of the recreational shipment volume,” says Canada Post in the Digital Age, written by the task force for the Canada Post Corporation review, released Monday.

Thousands of stoners in suits, activists, cannapreneurs and industry executives gathered Sept. 7-10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center for the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition. The event brought people from all over the world who are interested in finding success in the cannabis industry, and learning about all aspects of the new frontier. What an event to this scale proves is  that we are heading into a new era, one that respects the fact that the cannabis industry can yield some of the worlds most successful business women and men.

Whether you are opposed to their presence of not, legalised cannabis markets are here to stay. 

In April, Pennsylvanina become the 24th state to approve cannabis for medical purposes in the US, while it is already legal to all over-21s in four states and Washington DC. 

In the same month, Germany joined a host of European countries in creating medical cannabis legislation. Further afield, Australia, Uruguay and Brazil announced cannabis programmes last year and Canada is transitioning from a medical regime to a full adult-use market. 

Some suggest the legal cannabis market could reach $50bn in raw cannabis sales within ten years, others suggest figures closer to $300bn.