The newly budding industry’s employees are purpose-driven, highly motivated, and sometimes a little baked.

At first glance, MassRoots is just like any other technology company in America. The Denver-based social platform for marijuana enthusiasts boasts an open-concept, loft-style office filled with 33 talented programmers, developers, and sales staff.

But beneath the surface there’s something unique about working at a pot startup, and it has little to do with the fact that employees are often permitted to consume the substance on the job.

Owners of medical marijuana* dispensaries cannot obtain federal trademark protection on marks used in connection with marijuana sales — even if their home state’s laws have legalized marijuana businesses — because marijuana is an illegal substance under federal law, and therefore encompasses a use that is unlawful, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

In its July 14 decision in In re Morgan Brown, the TTAB upheld the decision of a trademark examiner at the U.S. Trademark Office who denied protection of a marijuana dispensary’s mark citing federal anti-drug laws.

Snoop Dogg is all over television in 2016. The Long Beach native has popped up on a few different shows this year and he’s about to add another one to the list. Snoop was announced as an executive producer and guest star for the upcoming MTV show Mary + Jane. The weed-themed series is a comedy about two best friends (played by Jessica Rothe and Scout Durwood) running an all-female marijuana delivery service in Los Angeles.

In addition to Snoop Dogg’s duties as a producer and guest star, he also created the theme song for the new MTV program. The Doggfather is no stranger to television themes as he most recently crafted one for Comedy Central’s Another Period. Fans will get to hear what he made for Mary + Jane when the show premieres on Sept. 5.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve warned potential investors that the cannabis industry is rife with fraud and bad behavior. With legalized cannabis still a relatively new industry and with states constantly changing their cannabis regulations, fraudsters can have a field day.

Cue the bizarre (though unsurprising) case of Portland-based dispensary, Cannacea, and allegations of cannabis investor fraud swirling around it.

Move over, giant pumpkins. Marijuana is taking over the competitive agriculture exhibits at this year's Oregon State Fair, which runs from August 26-September 5 in Salem. The fair's organizers are celebrating legalization by inviting growers to bring their best cannabis plants to the show, according to Portland FOX affiliate KPTV. 

An outgoing member of the Alaska Marijuana Control Board says some officials in Gov. Bill Walker's administration, as well as remaining board members, are attempting to delay implementation of the voter-approved commercial cannabis industry.

"There's an underlying agenda to subvert the process, to delay the implementation of a legalized marijuana industry," says Bruce Schulte, who was abruptly removed from the five-member board on Friday by the governor. "It doesn't look like the State of Alaska is really serious about making this happen."

A replacement was not immediately announced.

Only four days before the summer solstice, the air is hot and heavy, the sky cloudless. The road along the highway is spotted with shrubbery, gas stations and occasionally vast rows of crop, somehow withstanding, even thriving under the tenacious desert sun.  

Driving south from Tel Aviv along Ayalon Highway, the scenery looks almost identical to Southern California — if not for the Hebrew-lettered billboards, the green-clad soldiers waiting by desolate bus stops and the occasional black-hatted Orthodox men walking along the road. 

One company has made it their mission over the past year to expand access to cannabinoid-based products to people across Latin America. Since summer of 2014, Medical Marijuana, Inc. has been the first company to have cannabis products approved for import and use in three separate countries, Brazil, Mexico, and Paraguay, and has shown that is eager to develop additional untapped markets for future development.

Through their international architecture competitions, Bee Breeders give young architects and designers the platform to question the social and political role of architecture. Their latest competition, a Cannabis Bank without a specified site, was an open-ended question into the role and relevance of the increasingly normalised substance. The judges selected three winners and six honorable mentions, all of which presented ideas that open up the discourse around cannabis and its integration into the built environment.

The world’s largest marijuana market is getting ready to legalize, and local cities and counties are looking to cash in.

Estimates put the California recreational marijuana market around $7 billion yearly, with $1 billion recoupable in state taxes. Now, with Prop. 64 to legalize adult use set for the November ballot, voters in two dozen cities and counties will also be looking at measures to tax medical and/or recreational marijuana at the local level.