Americans spent $5.4 billion on legal medical and recreational marijuana last year, according to new estimates from ArcView Market Research and New Frontier Data, two marijuana industry market research groups.

The total includes over $1 billion in medical marijuana sales in California, nearly $1 billion in legal marijuana sales in Colorado, and more than a half-billion dollars in sales in Washington state.

There are all kind of ways legalization will greatly benefit Canadian society - one of them being the increased tax revenues which can pay for important social programs and pubic education initiatives.

But the jury's out on just how much money will be made, and the potential impact it will have. The January Economic Insights report issued by CIBC World Markets gave the straight dope on what the tax revenue from recreational marijuana could, potentially, mean for Canada. It's not necessarily a game-changer, according to economist Avery Shenfeld, who predicts a high end of $5-billion in annual tax revenue.

Amercanex says it has now resolved two of the biggest hurdles facing cannabis regulators: cash management and unified seed to sale tracking.

Amercanex, the American Cannabis Exchange, will begin offering ACEpay, a treasury and cash management system that allows ACE Marketplace participants to deposit cash as well as pay their bills, payroll and taxes in compliance with local regulations.

The city has already refused 135 other applications because they didn’t meet zoning requirements and were either too close to schools, community centres or public gathering places

Vancouver expects to legalize by the end of February the first 14 of at least 20 marijuana-related businesses now operating within city limits.

On Monday, the city said it had whittled down 176 applications for the country’s first legal retail marijuana stores to 14 that will now go before the Development Permit Board for approval. Another six stores could be drawn from 19 applications that are deemed to be clustered too close to each other.

Julian Marley, kid of reggae legend Bob Marley and a successful reggae musician in his own right, will be on hand to welcome fans at the California Marijuana Company Exposition March 4 and 5 at the Hilton Union Square, San Francisco.

Florida has a love/hate relationship with marijuana. You may not know it, but Florida has a very limited medical marijuana program that its legislature adopted in 2014 and that’s been entangled in legal challenges almost from its inception. In the same year, Florida also tried passing a medical marijuana constitutional amendment (Amendment 2) by a vote of the people that would have created a more robust medical marijuana marketplace. This year, that ballot initiative will again be making its way back to the voters.

Will 2016 be the year for Ganja internationally, as we move towards the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) 2016?

The issue of ganja played very prominently in our society in 2015 with some advocates trumpeting the dawn of a “new green golden kingdom”, while some opponents predicting the doom of our youths to the “green demon”. However, a sober analysis of the situation will reveal that even though there were indeed some victories in relation to how we treat with ganja in Jamaica, there is still a lot more to achieve and pitfalls to be mindful of in relation to our policy on establishing a fully legally regulated ganja industry.

Ganja strides in 2015:

By Luke Burgess

I flew out to Denver last week with Green Chip Stocks editor Jeff Siegel and a few of his subscribers.

The purpose of our trip was to meet with some of the players in Colorado's booming billon-dollar cannabis industry and to get a firsthand account of the legal bud biz now that much of the dust has settled.

We had a chance to visit a few different types of growing operations and talk with several owners and distributors about law, finances, marketing, and risk associated with the cannabis industry.

I won't bore you with a bunch of photos of pot plants I took while on the trip. Basically, if you've seen one pot plant, you've seen them all, right?

Colorado is now home to some of the nation’s first certified organic cannabis, which comes with a blessing from federal regulators. CBDRx, a Longmont, Colorado cannabis farm, has secured a certification to market its products with the organic seal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a major coup for the plant’s enthusiasts.

“As long as the industrial hemp is grown according to the Farm Bill, it can be certified organic to the USDA National Organic Program,” wrote Penelope Zuck, the agency’s organic program accreditation manager, in an email correspondence obtained by KUNC.

In news that will likely be celebrated by cannabis advocates and marijuana industry stakeholders alike, a new report concludes recreational marijuana sales skyrocketed from $351 million in 2014 to $998 million in 2015 — a 184 percent increase. The data come from the fourth edition of "The State of Legal Marijuana Markets," a joint report from the research wing of the ArcView Group, a marijuana industry investment firm, and New Frontier, a cannabis analytics firm.