As marijuana legalization looms on California’s horizon, employers are conflicted about their policies of drug testing.

If voters agree to legalize pot on November 8, business leaders and employment experts say employers can find themselves in trouble for asking an underling to pee into a cup. That common pre-work screening could violate an employee’s privacy regarding a medical condition. And, for potential employees, deciding whether to comply with drug testing often means a choice between refusing and not getting the job, or agreeing and being outed as a pot user.

Starting Oct. 1, new products headed to marijuana dispensary shelves will have to undergo a battery of tests that assess potency and look for biological contaminants such as E. coli, residual solvents from the extraction process used to make oil, and dozens of pesticides.

The policy shift transforms Oregon's marijuana labs from an unregulated cottage industry into a central part of the state's regulated market. Yet while hundreds of prospective marijuana producers have flooded the Oregon Liquor Control Commission with applications for licenses, only eight testing labs have applied so far. None has received a license yet.

Sales of legal marijuana in Colorado are more potent than ever.

According to the Colorado Department of Revenue as of May 2016 revenue from recreational and medicinal marijuana sales totaled $486 million.

In April, sales hit an all-time high of $117 million but lost a little buzz, settling back down to $98.6 million May.

There were $588 million in recreational sales last year. Five months into 2016, $308 million has been spent on non-medicinal marijuana.

In 2015, a record 71.3 million tourists visited the state, although only 8% reported visiting a dispensary, according to Colorado tourism surveys from Strategic Marketing and Research Insight.

As if Willy Wonka wasn’t already trippy.

Local cannabis chocolatier BlueKudu is pouring $1.5 million into a 20,000-square-foot production facility that will include a big new kitchen and a greenhouse for growing marijuana in house.

BlueKudu founder and owner Andrew Schrot, 34, started making chocolate edibles out of a commercial kitchen in Five Points in 2012. Last summer he purchased a warehouse at 4805 Kingston St. in northeast Denver for $975,000, according to property records. The company hopes to move in by fall.

A lawyer representing four dispensaries named in the latest City of Vancouver injunction applications says they plan to fight back.

Robert Laurie says Vancity Weeds, MMJ Canada, Red Med, and the Limelife dispensary will force the city to take them to court.

“My clients are really just wanting to remain open until there is some degree of certainty, and until that comes they’re going to remain open in defiance in the face of the law as a form of civil disobedience,” says Laurie.

All four dispensaries feel like their being unfairly muscled out of the market, according to Laurie, who says “the strategy by the city seems really an elimination strategy as opposed to a regulation policy.”

Humboldt Distillery have released a cannabis-infused vodka that uses America’s first legal crop of hemp since restrictions were lifted in 2014.

According to Civilized, Humboldt County grows some of America’s most potent cannabis, but through this may be the case, it seems that it is only lending its name to the vodka as the drink itself is made using hemp.

As voters go to the polls this November, at least four states will consider ballot questions on marijuana legalization. Pending proposals in Nevada, Maine and California would authorize recreational marijuana use, while Floridians will vote on whether to allow medical marijuana use.

Medlab is all set to give cannabis Australia human trials a boost as it has launched a $5.36 million equity raising. The cash will be mainly used for accelerating a medicinal cannabis human trial program at a leading Australian oncology research hospital. The marijuana-based pain management therapy will combine two cannabis compounds THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol).

Medlab’s shares last traded at 42 cents, way ahead of the year low of 16 cents. The 1-for-9 rights issue is at 30 cents a share, writes Business Insider Australia.

When young entrepreneur Steven Helfer put together a Facebook page about “dabbing” (smoking marijuana concentrate) featuring funny pictures, videos of people smoking and other pot-related content, he didn’t expect to get 110,000 “Likes.” And he didn’t expect to use it as a marketing platform to help launch a multi-million dollar business.

For the third year in a row, I spent my summer vacation on the stunningly beautiful island of Tenerife in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. I keep returning for the island’s natural richness, with amazing beaches, dense forests and spectacular mountains, but also — probably the main reason — because of the island's thriving cannabis culture.