In a sign of the times, the country's licensed medical marijuana producers have renamed their trade group Cannabis Canada.

The association says the scope of its work is evolving along with a changing environment — which includes the Trudeau Liberal government's promise to legalize and regulate the sale of non-medical marijuana.

The Harper Conservatives had already relaxed rules governing the production, sale and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes — providing a legal framework for a new industry producing pot and derived products.

Cannabis Canada will include licensed producers that have been represented by the Canadian Medical Cannabis Industry Association but will also accept applications from other types of stakeholder.

Leading packaging provider implements scalable technology to accommodate increasing demand in rapidly growing $6.7 billion market.

Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB), a premier supplier of packaging solutions and accessories for the legal cannabis industry, announced the launch of the marijuana industry's first online system that allows customers to design custom-branded packaging solutions. This tool will make it easier for customers to place orders, which is expected to lead to a higher conversion rate and a better ROI.

 A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left.

Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson is planning on introducing a motion that will direct city staffers to explore a ballot measure that would ask voters to amend marijuana dispensary rules and possibly legalize back-end cannabis businesses in town.

Wesson's motion asks city attorneys and other staffers to weigh ballot language that would "extend Proposition D's gross receipts tax to all marijuana-related businesses."

Proposition D, approved by voters in 2013, outlaws weed retailers but gives limited legal immunity 135 or fewer dispensaries that had been registered with the city since 2007. The motion is expected to be introduced at tomorrow's City Council meeting, Wesson's office says.

Cannabis is enjoying a major public-image improvement. After all, we've learned that the THC in marijuana has medicinal uses, while the plant fibers in hemp have countless uses in manufacturing. The legitimacy of marijuana is growing as states legalize it and corporations invest substantial resources in cannabinoid research and development.

No matter your stance on cannabis, you should get to know the world's most high-profile plant. So here are some facts and figures on marijuana that may surprise or impress you:

The nation’s employers have a problem, according to a new report in the New York Times—they can’t find enough workers who are capable of passing a drug test. Fortunately, for some of these companies, this is a problem with a very simple solution: Stop drug-testing your workers.

FARMERS in the state’s South East have joined the push to allow medicinal cannabis use in SA, saying they are “ready, willing and able” to grow crops. 

The Greens are introducing a motion to Parliament calling on the State Government to get medical cannabis in SA “from the farm to the pharmacy to the patient”.

Long-time campaigner Greens MLC Tammy Franks said leaders in other states, including Victoria and New South Wales, were “forging ahead” and South Australia needed to be more involved in the national debate about making medical cannabis legally available.

“Victoria’s begun growing — (Premier) Daniel Andrews’s crop is about a foot high now, South Australia’s is non-existent,” Ms Franks said.

It was with a sense of fulfilment and great pride that I heard that the regulations to govern the cannabis industries had been sent to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel by the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) a few weeks ago.

As the former chairman of the CLA who guided the preparation of these regulations and the development of the supporting framework under which they are intended to operate, one wants to see one's work come to fruition in the manner intended and to the benefit of the nation as a whole.

The modern American landscape seemed like a pipe dream just a decade ago. The White House is occupied by a person of color, marriage is no longer confined by Judeo-Christian concepts of love and cannabis has gone from being a despicable “gateway drug” to a legitimate component of the economies of several states. 

One can only admire the evolution underway in the world of cannabis agriculture and consumption. As soon as American innovators saw the budding legitimacy of big-time cannabusiness, they got to work ushering in a new age of grow and intake technology to meet and even create demand.

Consumption 2.0

There are more cannabis businesses that actually touch the plant than there are microbreweries in the United States. 

Of the estimated 21,000-33,000 companies involved in the cannabis industry, according to the latest data collected by the Marijuana Business Daily, 7,000 - 11,000 of the companies listed are dispensaries, recreational stores and wholesale cultivators.

And that's a conservative estimate. "The actual number of businesses could be much higher, given that many companies work with a variety of industries and might only have a client or two – or one project – in the cannabis industry," says the MBD.