The cannabis industry is generating plenty of new economic opportunities. Here are five areas that have grown up around legal marijuana.

1. Packaging

With legal ganja heavily regulated by state governments to avoid accidents like unintended consumption by kids, proper pot packaging and labeling are imperative. Kush Bottles, the manufacturer of child-resistant plastic cannabis containers, and Stink Sack, which makes odor-free opaque bags with childproof slide locks, are new two companies in the game.

2. Real estate

Amid the casinos and the shows, the bars and the pools, Las Vegas now welcomes to the Strip a medical marijuana dispensary.

Sandwiched between the SLS Las Vegas and Stratosphere hotel-casino resorts, the Essence Cannabis Dispensary, which opens Wednesday, is the first such facility on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Joel and Lisa Schneider’s bed and breakfast in Silverthorne, Colorado, has all the trappings of a traditional B&B (stone fireplace, home-cooked meals, an alarmingly cute dog), with one significant addition: a complimentary bar of seven marijuana strains, and more than a dozen different implements to smoke them out of.

420 Ventures announced that it has acquired majority stake in Le Herbe and the United Hemp Company. Premium cannabis beverage maker, Le Herbe, will operate independently to produce, process and distribute organic cannabis products, but will no longer provide optional CBD only products. The United Hemp Company will takeover the CBD category from it's parent company and will exclusively provide these products through industrial hemp production including, but not limited to, infused beverages, nutritional supplements and soluble hemp extracts.

Israel's fast-growing cannabis industry has high hopes for a new market -- exports of medical marijuana to America.

The country is already a leading supplier of pharmaceuticals to the U.S. Now its government, scientists and companies are working together to turn the once illicit drug into a booming new medical business.

With conservative Rabbis giving the okay for medical marijuana use, and the government adopting a relaxed stance, investment in cannabis production has exploded.

The industry is being pushed by Israel's Ministry of Health, which is trying to take the morality out of weed.

Second annual CannaTech conference brings hundreds of delegates from 15 countries to see what Israeli ‘cannapreneurs’ can offer them.

Marijuana conferences are popping up on a near weekly basis in the United States. Entrepreneurs, scientists and investors have to weed out the recreational gatherings from the more important industry confabs.

But there was no doubt that the CannaTech 2016 International Summit on Cannabis Innovation this week in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem was an essential event.

There are increasing signs that 2016 might just be the year the largest state in the nation legalizes recreational marijuana.

Polls have shown from 56 percent to 60 percent of California’s likely voters in the November presidential contest support legal pot. And due in part to hefty financial backing from a Silicon Valley billionaire, the leading pro-marijuana measure – the Adult Use of Marijuana Act – has gotten off to one of the strongest starts among dozens of proposed initiatives on different topics being pitched for the Nov. 8 ballot.

There are only seven marijuana dispensaries in Aspen.

But they are presumably as busy as liquor stores in the community — and sometimes more so.

According to newly released City of Aspen statistics, alcohol sales exceeded marijuana sales in the community in 2015.

But during two months of the year — March and April — cannabis was king.

The numbers were shared by the Aspen Times, which points out that separate marijuana and alcohol sales stats for 2015 represent a first for the community.

The head of Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries says if recreational marijuana is legalized, it should at least initially be sold in retail stores separate from liquor stores. 

CEO John Stinson recently took a trip to Denver, Colo., in search of a pot-selling model that works. He toured recreational marijuana production and retail facilities and met with state officials.

"I saw a retail model that really impressed me," he said.

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries CEO John Stinson says a retail space in Colorado is an encouraging model for selling recreational marijuana in Manitoba. (Matt Kwong/CBC)

MP: The legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use could be an agricultural opportunity for struggling communities

Denmark’s small islands are struggling for survival but could find a new lease of life as cannabis-farming communities should Parliament adopt a proposal to legalise cannabis for medicinal use, Alternativet MP Nicolaj Amstrup has told DR.

There is currently a slim parliamentary majority in favour of legalising medical cannabis.

“If we pass a law about medicinal cannabis, then it would be smart if it supported a new agricultural opportunity, and the islands would be perfect for that,” Amstrup told DR Fyn.