Roger Jenkins, once known for Middle Eastern deals as one of the highest-paid bankers at Barclays Plc, is swapping dollars for ounces as the Briton invests in a marijuana venture in his adopted home of California, according to people familiar with the plans.

The U.S. and Canadian equity markets are currently enjoying different types of highs.

In the U.S., the three main stock market indexes are hitting levels not seen before while in Canada it is investors’ interest in medical marijuana stocks that is reaching new heights.

Consider this: Over the past three weeks, six local companies raised $124.5 million of equity capital. To put that number in perspective, $124.5 million makes this the busiest quarter on record and almost six times what was raised in the second quarter.

By Andrea Hill, Toronto Lawyer

“The way individuals access cannabis for medical purposes is changing.”

With this sparse statement, Health Canada introduced a new set of regulations, the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR), which will replace the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) on Aug. 24.

The protection of intellectual property (IP), such as trademarks and creative marketing innovations, is a benefit of federal law denied to participants in the nascent marijuana industry emerging under state-level legalization reforms.

The issue of “Trademark Laundering, Useless Patents and Other IP Challenges for the Marijuana Industry” is explored by Sam Kamin and Viva Moffat, law professors at the University of Denver College of Law, in the Winter, 2016 issue of the Washington and Lee Law Review.

Marijuana's official designation as a Schedule 1 drug — something with "no accepted medical use" — means it is pretty tough to study.

That can be frustrating to scientists who, regardless of their position on its legal status, almost uniformly agree that more rigorous scientific analyses of the drug are desperately needed.

Marijuana isn't as simple as it seems. It's a plant made up of hundreds of different compounds — each of which have a variety of potential effects ranging from pain relief to reducing blood pressure. Some of them play no role in getting you high. 

As a result, many experts say, barring marijuana research with a sweeping, all-inclusive ban simply doesn't make sense.

New Theory Magazine visualizes the recent sales of legal marijuana in America with the release of the new infographic. It was just two years ago that the first ever recreational marijuana dispensaries opened their doors for business in Colorado, but ever since, the growth in the industry has been shocking!

In fact, CBS News even reported that “the growing acceptance and legalization of marijuana is helping the U.S. cannabis industry expand well beyond niche status,” with it’s forecast expected “to pump from $24 billion to $44 billion annually into the country’s economy by 2020.”

Recent Globe and Mail reporting has uncovered a “Wild West” of grey-market marijuana sales where product quality ranges from uneven to potentially unsafe. Given this situation, the federal government should proceed promptly with its legalization promise. This will not only protect consumers from hazardous products but also enable industry self-improvement.

Floyd Landis is rolling with the dope crowd again, but this time around there are no secret blood transfusions on remote roadsides in the French Alps, no illicit syringes filled with olive oil and testosterone, no injections of human growth hormone or the banned blood booster EPO.

But there is a 34,000-square foot warehouse filled with thousands of marijuana plants heavy with glistening buds the size of pine cones.

There are two finalists for licenses from the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission in Worcester County.  One processor and one grower made the final 15, respectively.  Economic leaders in Worcester County believe the two cannabis business could provide a big economic boost to the county.

For weeks, Bill Myer studied images of Phoenix neighborhoods, pored over zoning maps and drove the streets in search of property that could house a new medical-marijuana dispensary.

Myer, of Phoenix, already owns a dispensary in Glendale, but with state officials poised to award a second round of licenses since medical marijuana became legal in 2010, he hired a surveyor to do measurements once he narrowed in on a site. He found one property that could work and talked to the owner about leasing or buying the building if he gets a license.

“It’s nothing more than a lottery ticket. It’s a $5,000 lottery ticket, basically,” Myer said.

But if he wins, he wins big. That ticket could be worth millions.