Investors who are choosing among the hundreds of businesses involved in the emerging, yet growing cannabis industry are often caught in a conundrum as to whether medical companies are a safer investment compared to recreational businesses.

The legal marijuana markets are currently generating $5.7 billion in revenue in 2015, an increase from $4.6 billion in 2014 in revenue and are estimated to reach $22 billion by 2020, according to The ArcView Group, a cannabis investment and research firm based in San Francisco.

Pearlfisher has created a conceptual medical marijuana brand named Allay in conjuction with Surface Magazine. 

The American design, architecture, and fashion magazine approached Pearlfisher with an open-ended brief to develop a theoretical brand that imagines the future of marijuana. 

While the agency initially had doubts around the idea, it decided that given consumer adoption of medical marijuana in the US for health benefits it decided to charge ahead and developed a conceptual challenger brand that is designed to provide relief from chronic stress, anxiety and pain by harnessing the alleviating power of the marijuana root. 

Kush, an emerging leader in the Cannabis and Hemp marketplace, has announced plans to file an information statement pursuant to Regulation A for consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Upon being declared effective, Kush will conduct a Regulation A offering of its common stock and thereafter seek a stock trading symbol for its common shares. Management believes these steps will enable Kush to aggressively expand its current business and product development plans. The filing reflects the fast growing investment trends in the multi­billion dollar Medical, Industrial and Adult Use Cannabis markets in the United States.

When the Canadian Parliament considered decriminalizing marijuana possession in 2003, U.S. officials loudly objected. They complained that the proposed reform would betray the anti-drug cause, worried that it would encourage drug tourism and facilitate marijuana smuggling, and threatened to respond with a border crackdown that would impede trade and travel between the two countries.

Canadian legislators got the message. The marijuana bill, which would have made possessing up to 15 grams (about half an ounce) of marijuana a civil offense punishable by a fine and reduced the penalties for home cultivation of up to seven plants, never got a vote.

As more states contemplate legalizing recreational marijuana, the businesses that pop up are going to need banking solutions. Fortunately for them, more US banks are becoming willing to dabble in the cannabis trade.

Over the last two years, the number of banks and credit unions open to dealing with marijuana businesses has increased by almost six times, the Associated Press reported, citing federal data. Back in March of 2014, only 51 banks and credit unions in the country were willing to deal with cash from pot businesses, but the number now stands at 301.

If the estimated US$45 billion or so of yearly demand for recreational marijuana is in the right ballpark, then more Americans crave cannabis more than cabernet or candy bars. And as legalization efforts pull marijuana sales out of the shadows of the black market, an industry is, er, budding. 

Canada’s provinces should each get leeway on the way they sell, tax and control marijuana once the drug is legalized by the federal government, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute.

The framework suggested by economist Anindya Sen would create a patchwork of rules across Canada, with different laws governing everything from the stores that can carry the drug to the penalties for selling to underage users.

In this “joint venture,” the federal government would monitor the safe production of marijuana for recreational use, while the provinces would oversee distribution, with an eye to meeting public-health goals.

Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong fame, the standup/movie/music icon, has added entrepreneur to his list of achievements. But the businessman is staying in character with the Tommy Chong we have all grown to know and love.

It's all about weed.

His latest product line is called Chong's Choice, and according to Instagram, it is "a national legal and medicinal brand you can finally trust."

In 2014, his new business venture in Colorado, where cannabis production and sales are legal, began manufacturing 2 products for distribution:

As millions of marijuana aficionados light up Wednesday at 4:20 p.m. in celebration of “Weed Day,” many are blissfully unaware of the increasing interest that investors with deep pockets are showing in their favorite psychoactive herb.

A green rush is on in the marijuana industry, with legal sales of cannabis rising by a billion dollars or more each year nationwide, according to one report, and venture capitalists pouring millions into marijuana enterprises ranging from computer software and social networks to storage bags, vaporizers and insurance.

Three years ago, I had never planned a lavish party where guests got high. I hadn’t gotten fired for vaping on national television. I hadn’t founded Women Grow, the largest professional networking organization for cannabis industry professionals. There wasn’t a line of Jane West cannabis accessories in the works. My name wasn’t even Jane West.

I was in my mid-thirties, rising through the ranks in corporate America. My husband and I were raising our two young sons in suburban Denver. Measured by the traditional milestones and my own standards, I was a happy, successful woman.