Marijuana has America seeing green in more ways than one.

The currently illicit drug has been gaining momentum at a rapid pace this decade with more than half of all respondents in national polls now offering a favorable opinion of marijuana. It's even pushed its way into the presidential debate spotlight, forcing the candidates to step into previously taboo territory and choose a position. Marijuana is also offering hope for medical patients with a variety of ailments in the 23 states where medical marijuana is currently approved.

Proponents of legalizing industrial hemp note that this crop has the potential to be a huge moneymaker for American farmers, bolstering the economy and the nation’s agricultural trade. While legalizing weed may get more press, the industrial hemp movement is perhaps even more impactful for America as a whole, particularly from a financial standpoint. 

Here are four financial predictions by those who have studied the marketability of industrial hemp:

BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon (Reuters) - Inside a garage in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley filled with green dust and piles of cannabis, stand a woman and a 13-year-old boy, sifting through the twigs and buds of the recent harvest.

They are Muslim refugees from Raqqa province - de facto capital in Syria of Islamic State fighters - and part of an extended family of about 25 that fled in the past few years to live in tents in the relative safety of a Lebanese village.

The 29-year-old woman, who declined to be identified for safety reasons, left two months ago with her youngest son, 5, to join family including cousins, second cousins and grandparents.

Jacob Securities Inc. is shutting down, making it the second small Canadian broker dealer to announce plans to get out of the business this week alone.

In an interview, founder Sasha Jacob cited the “regulatory burden” and “extraordinary cost structure” of being an Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) member as a major reason for the firm’s struggles.

“Quite frankly the costs of maintaining retail and a trading desk ... have been a bit of a distraction and a drain on the firm” he said.

On Friday, IIROC announced it had suspended Jacob Securities’ IIROC membership which effectively puts the dealer out of business.  

A report from Greenwave Advisors projects the legalized marijuana industry is on pace to eclipse $35 billion in revenue by 2020. A "comprehensive research and financial analysis for the emerging legalized marijuana industry," looked at a model where cannabis is legalized at the federal level in all fifty states, compared to the more likely path where it's legalized in 18-20 states, including California.

Is marijuana the next billion-dollar industry in Canada?

If you ask people who work at medical-marijuana companies like Tweed and Hydropothecary — which have invested millions of dollars to comply with Health Canada’s strict rules governing medical marijuana — the answer is, “we sure hope so.”

Hemp equals hippie. Does it not? Only bearded dudes talk about all things leafy.

But this inquiry is purely from an environmental perspective. With carbon being pronounced a dirty word after the Paris Summit, the hemp industry in India and elsewhere is asking to be taken seriously as a producer of environmentally sustainable material.

Leader in food products joins leader in ingredients

At the Bud+Breakfast at the Adagio, which bills itself as a cannabis-friendly lodge, visitors to Colorado looking to get a whiff of the local weed scene can wake up to the smell of pot wafting through the foyer and dining rooms of what have become known as "bud-and-breakfasts." Mornings begin with a "wake and bake," where guests sample marijuana strains before scoffing down a traditional three-course breakfast. Afternoons can be spent unwinding with a THC-infused massage or lighting a joint at the lodge's 4:20 p.m. happy hour.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have approved a plan to build a facility to grow marijuana on their reservation in central Oregon and sell it at tribe-owned stores outside the reservation.

The vote comes a year after a U.S. Department of Justice policy indicated tribes could grow and sell pot under the same guidelines as states that opt to legalize. The tribe is one of the first in the country to enter the pot business.

Tribal officials said about 80 per cent of tribal voters favoured the proposal. More than 1,400 of the 3,300 eligible voters turned out for the referendum Thursday.