FREETOWN, Mass. —

Admittedly, it's not much to look at now. But one company says an empty lot in Freetown could become the leading facility in the world for pot.

"It's what we want as a town," said Planning Board Chairman Keven Desmarais.

The plan is a massive one: about 1 million square feet to grow and process medical marijuana at a state-of the-art facility indoors.

The company, AmeriCann Inc., won't actually sell any of the cannabis. But instead will lease the facility to licensed growers. The weed would only be used in Massachusetts, where voters overwhelmingly approved it for medical use in 2012.

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - The Thanksgiving weekend is the retail industry's biggest time of year, so it only make sense that Oregon's marijuana businesses would want a piece of the proverbial pie.

Shango Cannabis, which has three stores in the Portland area, says it plans to offer special deals for medicinal and recreational marijuana customers.

Shango's director of sales says its specials will start the day before Thanksgiving.

As marijuana laws change across the country, there's a group out there making sure women get a seat at the table.

In an upstairs bar in Philadelphia’s Headhouse Square neighborhood in early November, Stephanie Thomas stood in front of a group of roughly two dozen with a simple message.

“This industry is never going to be this small again,” Thomas said. 

She was talking about the marijuana industry. And in the state she was standing in, quite simply, there is no industry -- at least no legal one. 

Government-run weed stores are not necessary, reply marijuana advocates, after OPSEU boss suggests keeping it in state hands following legalization.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation is considering the idea of producing medical marijuana on its land—complying with state and federal law— hoping it would produce needed revenue for the tribe.

Tribal Trustee Chairman Bryan Polite said in a statement that after the New York State Legislature passed the Compassionate Care Act last year—an act that allows health care providers to recommend forms of medical marijuana to patients with serious conditions—the nation began to think about what that act meant for the tribe.

City officials will seek a temporary moratorium expansion to give City Council more time to discuss regulations, spokesman says

Denver city officials have pulled back from seeking a two-year moratorium on any new players in the city's legal marijuana market in response to City Council concerns, a city spokesman says.

On Tuesday morning, Mayor Michael Hancock's marijuana policy office instead will ask a council committee to approve an expanded 120-day moratorium, allowing time for more discussion and consideration of industry concerns. The current two-year moratorium — allowing only existing medical marijuana businesses to open recreational dispensaries, grow houses or edible manufacturers — expires Jan. 1.

Marijuana dispensaries have come a long way from the seedy head shops lining Venice Beach.

Today, these brick-and-mortar establishments range from boutique shops where "budtenders" walk you through the product line to fluorescent-lit clinics where medicinal use is emphasized.

The dispensary of the future was a hot topic at last week's New West Summit in San Francisco, California. Here's what we learned.

LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) – It’s taken 15 years, but one-by-one medical marijuana businesses are opening across the valley, giving patients more access to the drug.

Four dispensaries are doing business now and a fifth will open in January. The promise of more storefronts is spawning business of another kind, catering to tourists. Now, instead of taking a tour of the Hoover Dam or up and down the Las Vegas Strip, tourists can stop at medical marijuana locations across Clark County.

Medical Marijuana Tour Promoters are now looking for business, decked out in bright green vests.
The 420 Tours began rolling about a month ago, driving patients from one medical marijuana dispensary to the next.

More than 20 companies have applied for medical-marijuana dispensary licenses to locate in the two senatorial districts that cover Washington County, according to a breakdown of applications announced Tuesday by state officials.

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission has posted the more than 800 dispensary license applications received by the Nov. 6 deadline on its website, listed in each of the state's 47 senatorial districts.

Welcome to Growing Pains.

In this column, experts Nic Easley, CEO and founder of Comprehensive Cannabis Consulting ("3C"), and Adam Koh, 3C’s Chief Cultivation Officer, will field questions from cultivators, business owners, facility managers and others involved in the cannabis-cultivation process to provide insight, perspective and solutions that have been developed and tested over many years in the industry.

Do you have a question

about cultivation, harvesting or processing? Improving site or facility operations? Sourcing or supply chain management? Hiring, training or compensating staff? Analyzing costs and maximizing profitability? Compliance or licensing issues?