The recent killing of a marijuana store security guard in Colorado and the wounding of another guard in San Bernardino are the latest examples of the crime lure posed by cash-only pot dispensaries, industry observers say.

But while those armed robbery attempts and a pot store shootout in Walnut Park in Los Angeles County were unfolding last month, Democratic-sponsored legislation that could have led to more dispensaries offering plastic and electronic payments in lieu of cash was blocked by House Republicans.

The budding Marijuana industry has attracted a legion of “ganjapreneurs” seeking the chance to cash in on the US movement to legalize and legitimize Cannabis. ArcView Group, a “hub for investment, data and progress” estimates the industry will drive around $7 billion in revenue during 2016. This number is predicted to jump to over $22 billion by 2020. As more and more states join the movement to legalize, control and tax, a new generation of startups are seeing an opportunity to be part of the first wave to establish profitable marijuana based services.

County has permitted about 800 growers.

The destruction left by the Butte Fire was still evident Thursday morning in remnants of charred, leafless trees and gaping holes on hillsides, but vegetation does grow from the ruins: marijuana. 

In an area hit hardest last year, not far from Baker Riley Way in Mokelumne Hill, lies a pocket of cannabis cultivators. 

Among them is Max Cirello, 19. He said Calaveras County officials told him he was among the youngest in the area to obtain a commercial license last week. 

After a six-week window to obtain a permit to cultivate within the county, registration for cannabis cultivators ended June 30. 

With medical marijuana slated to become legal in Ohio on Sept. 8, potential cannabis entrepreneurs are faced with two major challenges: growing an entire pot industry from the ground up, and avoiding being choked out by state bureaucrats.

Those challenges comprised the major theme of the Ohio Cannabis Association's public forum Wednesday night. The group serves as the first marijuana trade association in the state. It has been in the works since 2014, but only truly came into existence in April, said Brian Wright, the group's spokesperson.

Rosie Yagielo runs a marijuana business at the southern edge of a state where medical pot isn't available.

Based in a small office in Key Largo, HempStaff doesn't grow the drug or sell it.

Yet it could profit if voters in November approve an amendment to expand the legal uses of medical marijuana. HempStaff is one of 15,000 businesses nationwide that provide services and technology to marijuana growers and dispensaries.

They see Florida as an opportunity. The state's budding marijuana market could be one of the largest in the country within a matter of years if 60 percent of voters approve Amendment 2.

If you watched this year's NBA playoffs - as many, many millions of Americans did - you might've seen a 30-second spot for a performance hydroponics company called Black Magic. 

The spot - entitled "Growers" - praises the "perfection-seeking" tendencies of green-thumbs who operate "under the cover of darkness," represented by a range of attractive, plaid-and-hoodie clad, Doc-Marten-wearing actors tending plants under glowing purple LEDs. A voiceover intones:

When three Colorado marijuana entrepreneurs made a presentation to 40 Silicon Valley investors last year, it was as though they were discussing something dirty.

“There was an uncomfortable chuckle in the room, kind of like you’re talking about porn,” says Fulton Connor, the Sand Hill Angels Inc. member who arranged the meeting. His fellow venture capitalists just couldn’t get past the fact that marijuana remains prohibited under federal law.

The legal pot business may be in its infancy, but it’s already created the marijuana equivalent of pre-grated cheese and instant noodles. Don’t feel like rolling a joint? Buy a pre-roll. Don’t want to smoke marijuana? Slurp it in a just-add-water soup mix, use a pod to brew it into a cup of coffee, or drop some salts into the bathtub and submerge yourself in it.

Two Canadian marijuana dispensary chains have moved into Ottawa, opening three stores and planning more. Stittsville is also about to get a marijuana dispensary, which will bring to six the number of store-front businesses illegally selling marijuana in Ottawa.

The newest shop, Green Tree Medical Dispensary, opened on Montreal Road on Sunday with a selection of dried buds, cookies, candy and marijuana-infused drinks on display in a glass case.

The Ottawa stores all cater to medical marijuana patients. Medical marijuana is legal in Canada, but only for patients with a doctor’s prescription who purchase it from growers licensed by Health Canada, who send the medicine by registered mail.

The Growing Divide is an online documentary project that uses photography and a series of 25 interviews with residents, marijuana growers, police officers and government officials to tell the story of the marijuana boom in the rural community of Hayfork, California.

With photographs by Talia Herman and Brian Gossman, and with support from California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Humboldt Area Foundation, the result is a multi-faceted look at the marijuana industry in the microcosm of a small, rural community. Read on for excerpts from this project, and view it in its entirety online at: www.thegrowingdivide.com.