PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have approved growing marijuana on their reservation in central Oregon and selling it 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. The tribe is one of a handful to enter the pot business thus far.

Warm Springs officials said about 80 percent of tribal voters favored the proposal. More than 1,400 of the 3,300 eligible voters turned out for the Thursday referendum.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently released a new biotechnology report focused on medical cannabis called “Medical cannabis has high POTential: a joint biotech & tools primer”. In the report, the analyst takes a detailed look at the current medical marijuana landscape and the various companies operating within it, while being bullish on the overall cannabis testing market and the growth prospects for tools within it.

The report mentions a number of cannabis testing companies:

Tis the Season -- for reflection and prediction. Tune in any TV network and you'll see experts prognosticating on the global state of affairs while other segments reflect on the year that was. The cannabis industry is no different. 

One of the industry's primary movers-and-shakers is Nicole Smith, founder and CEO of Mary's Medicinals, the Denver-based company that manufactures transdermal cannabis patches along with other unique cannabis nutraceutical products. In fact, Mary's Medicinals has won the Cannabis Business Award for "Most Innovative Product" for two years in a row and Smith was recently named a Denver Business Journal Outstanding Woman in Business for 2015.

HUMBOLDT – Those involved in the marijuana industry now have the chance to put their names on a county registry that will allow priority processing once the state launches a medical marijuana licensing system.

A resolution authorizing registration with the county gained unanimous approval at the Dec. 8 Board of Supervisors meeting. Brought forward by Board Chair Estelle Fennell and Supervisor Ryan Sundberg, the resolution establishes a registry that is immediately in effect and addresses a provision in new state law that allows the opportunity for priority license processing to those who sign onto it.

High Times Chief Executive David Kohl addresses audience at the High Times Business Summit

In the past 40 years, marijuana has evolved from a black-market drug to a substance that is legal in some form in nearly half of U.S. states and is expected to become a nearly $35 billion industry within the next decade.

But so far, there isn’t much in the way of investment opportunities.

Earlier this month Bank of America Merrill Lynch put out a research report on the marijuana industry’s prospects. Touted as the first such assessment by a major financial institution, the report is a milestone in a fast-growing sector that is hungry for mainstream recognition and the money that comes with it. But a close reading of the report makes clear that marijuana has a long way to go before it resembles a normal American industry.

Big banks are starting to partner with the very fintech companies that formed to replace them

Financial technology startups have typically been portrayed as a band of T-shirt-clad geeks poised to snatch food off the dinner plates of the button-collared bankers. So it may have come as a surprise to some when, rather than going head-to-head with the Bay Street behemoths, so-called fintech companies started partnering with the very incumbents they had set out to upheave.

Over the past year, chief executives at some of Canada’s biggest banks have acknowledged the competitive threat posed by tech-savvy entrants.

The Solicitor General of the United Sates says that recreational marijuana is Colorado’s business and there is no need for the U.S. Supreme Court to review claims from Nebraska and Oklahoma that they are owed something because the legal weed is being trafficked beyond the Centennial State’s borders.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service says it's illegal to mail materials containing advertising for marijuana products, even in states that have legalized the federally controlled substance.

The policy statement released this week comes in response to a letter from Oregon's Congressional delegation asking the service to clarify its policy on the issue.

In November, a memo distributed in the Portland postal district said it was unlawful for newspaper outlets to run marijuana ads and use the U.S. mail for delivery.

Hemp could be the crop of the future for Taranaki according to a study at Massey University. 

Results of a one-year study on the benefits of growing industrial hemp in the region were released at a presentation at the TSB Showplace in New Plymouth on December 11.

One aspect of the study focused on whether hemp would be a suitable crop to grow on landfarmed soil, while another study looked at the economic benefits and logistics of growing hemp in Taranaki.