History was made in Colorado, guys: Tax revenue from marijuana sales was higher than revenue brought in by alcohol. 

The state raised about $70 million from weed in fiscal year 2014-2015, compared to the less than $42 million from alcohol sales, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. Last Wednesday, Colorado celebrated a "marijuana tax holiday," where the state suspended marijuana sales for a day. And I guess it was a well deserved break. 

Tuatara Capital LP, a New York-based investment firm focused on the legal cannabis industry, has announced a partnership with Willie Nelson’s premium marijuana brand, Willie’s Reserve. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Willie’s Reserve will be grown distributed and sold by businesses in Colorado and Washington, where recreational use of marijuana is legal, with plans to expand to other areas as laws change and allow for legal use. The Austin-based singer announced the brand this spring with initial plans for a September launch, but this is the first piece of concrete business news about the new business venture.

If the booming marijuana industry means anything to the majority of people, it means opportunity. We’re talking about opportunities for all-around wellness and progress – and of course the economic advantages are beyond exciting.

In Colorado alone, more than 16,000 jobs have been created within the cannabis industry. And, as the Marijuana Policy Project points out, this number does not include the boost seen in collateral sectors such as real estate, law, accounting, and tourism.

A lot of marijuana jobs include what you might expect, like budtenders, trimmers, and growers. But within that same industry there are other high-skill positions which few of us saw coming.

Amid criticism of high prices for medical marijuana, one of Minnesota's manufacturers on Monday announced a discount for patients buying a month's supply of medicine.

LeafLine Labs' 15 percent discount could mean anywhere between $15 in savings on some of the company's less expensive pills, and as much as a $150 discount on more expensive products, chief executive Manny Munson-Regala said. The shift comes after LeafLine's competitor, Minnesota Medical Solutions, substantially increased its own prices earlier this summer.

If it goes well in one of four states with a legal adult recreational market, the 3o-year-old New York entrepreneur will look to California — where medicinal marijuana is legal — because he thinks it is "absurd" that cannabis isn't traded on an open, transparent exchange like other agricultural products. Miller feels it is time for the cannabis industry to move beyond its current quasi-legal state in which farmers toss their product in the back of their car and drive it to dispensaries where they sell it for cash.

FAIRBANKS — The next mayor will influence how marijuana commerce unfolds in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. 

Some of the things to be decided by local leaders in the coming months include whether to limit the number of marijuana businesses, what criteria to require of people wanting to open a marijuana business and the selection process for issuing licenses. 

As medical marijuana gains traction as a treatment option for a host of conditions including chronic pain and other conditions, Canadian employers could find themselves grappling with a sticky issue.

"Individuals have the right to equal treatment ... without discrimination on the grounds of disability," says Jan Robinson, managing principal at human resources firm Morneau Shepell.

"Medical cannabis now needs to be viewed like every other doctor-prescribed drug."

But although employers have a duty to accommodate workers' medical conditions, experts say that duty must be balanced with the need to keep the workplace safe. That can be challenging, especially if employees perform duties such as operating machinery.

Owners of two Denver marijuana growing facilities on Friday said they were voluntarily recalling their products after city health officials learned tests found unapproved pesticides.

The recall of an undisclosed amount of plants and edible products is the second issued by the Denver Department of Environmental Health in just over a week, underscoring the city’s enforcement efforts on companies allegedly using disallowed chemicals.

Department officials said retailers should either destroy the recalled products or return them to the manufacturer. Consumers who have the products should return them to the store of purchase or dispose of them.

ResponsibleOhio disagrees with Zaino’s reading of the proposed amendment. “It’s clear that our opponents are trying to come up with any reason they can, regardless of legitimacy, to justify their anti-marijuana reform agenda,” said Faith Oltman, a spokeswoman for ResponsibleOhio.

Marijuana is illegal in Tennessee, but when and if the law changes, the business opportunities will be vast — along with the risks.

The marijuana market is spurring the creation of hundreds of new businesses in marijuana-friendly states, according to Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. Those are the growers and sellers, but also the many ancillary businesses supporting the industry.

“There are quite a lot (of opportunities), given it’s a $3 billion industry and growing,” she said, speaking to a crowd of entrepreneurs at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s NERVE conference in Nashville on Friday.