A convention focused on medical marijuana drew several thousand people to downtown Boston over the weekend, as Massachusetts gears up for a likely ballot fight over legalizing the substance for recreational use.

Fifty national and local vendors hawked their wares, which included pipes, lights aimed at helping marijuana grow, and a $150 machine that can make edibles infused with the substance, along with salves.

The convention, held inside the Castle at Park Plaza, also highlighted an industry in its infancy in the Bay State, as some young men in T-shirts laid out their pipes on the table and not much else. They stood alongside older men in suits promoting medical marijuana dispensaries and software meant to help manage dispensaries’ business.

In January 2015, Christine Ianuzzi joined three of her siblings as a managing partner of H.A. Bruno, LLC, an event planning firm that has operated all over the world since its inception back in 1923. H.A. Bruno (HAB) currently produces eight events in four countries, covering six industries, with offices in Paramus, NJ, Mexico City, and London. Founded as a public relations firm, HAB grew through the 1970s into a leader in the global tradeshow industry. With the introduction of the microcomputer for business in the early 1980s, HAB, then under the management of the Ianuzzi family, had the foresight to launch PC EXPO in New York, as the first “business to business” event for volume buyers of PCs and technology providers.

Colorado Harvest Company Opens a New Cannabis Retail Center in Aurora

E-commerce and a classic 1967 VW bus photo booth combine high tech and fun

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The next big marijuana trend may have just hit the ground running in Colorado Springs. Soon, people there will be able to get gas and buy weed.

7NEWS found a place called Gas & Grass owned by Native Roots on the east side of the city.  

The company said it is the largest medical marijuana dispensary chain in Colorado. Company officials wouldn't go into particulars about the new concept but told the Colorado Springs Independent that it bought two Colorado Springs gas stations to transform them into a gas station/dispensary business.

"This is an opportunity to expand the market," said Cannabis advocate Robert Chase. "We still need the owners to be responsible."

SASKATOON – The owner of a Saskatoon community medical marijuana dispensary says he will not close his doors after receiving a recent letter from Health Canada warning him to cease operations or face a police investigation. Mark Hauk, founder of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, says he opened the business in reaction to federal regulations he calls unreasonable. The only reason he says he would close his doors would be if those regulations were changed.

In its letter to Hauk and 12 other similar dispensaries across the country, Health Canada wrote that his operation must stop within 30 days or else the agency would turn his case over to RCMP. Hauk could face up a $5-million fine and spend as many as two years in prison.

The Suquamish Tribe and Washington State Liquor Cannabis Board have signed what they say is the nation's first state-tribal marijuana compact.

Board officials said in a news release the 10-year agreement signed Monday will govern the production, processing and sale of pot on the Tribe's land located in Kitsap County.

The state negotiated the agreement in lieu of Board licensure. Under the compact, a tribal tax equivalent to the state excise tax will be applied to sales to non-tribal customers on Suquamish tribal lands.

Board chair Jane Rushford says the agreement is a model for future compacts.

Minorities struggle for footing in lucrative cannibis industry

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It takes more than an entrepreneurial spirit and knowledge of cannabis to open up a shop in the United States' rapidly emerging legal marijuana industry.

Aspiring marijuana business owners need a clean record and access to large amounts of both financial and social capital.

"It appears that there are three different pillars to being successful," said Corey Barnette, owner of District Growers cultivation center and Metropolitan Wellness dispensary in Washington, D.C. "One is actually being qualified, capable and having a good team, and the other one is just having the politics of the situation on your side. And then thirdly, having the financial resources on your side."

New ideas and innovative business principles are our bread and butter here at Cashinbis. So when we caught wind of a brand new educational trade show specific to the Native American community, we knew we had to participate.

Native Nation Events hosted their first cannabis-related event, September 9th and 10th at Harrah’s Resort in North San Diego County. The luxe resort hotel and casino recently underwent a multimillion dollar renovation, and the new event center is a popular spot for conferences, conveniently located between the San Diego and Los Angeles metro areas.

By Romain Bonilla 

It’s hard to overstate the importance of conferences to the cannabis community. Getting together, if even for a few days, provides us with amazing opportunities to learn, network, and share – and it’s no surprise why some travel thousands of miles to attend cannabis conferences across the country. As a drug policy reform activist for the past seven years, I have been to my fair share of marijuana conferences, and still to this day, I’m blown away by the exceptional work of marijuana reformers and the progress we’ve accomplished as a movement.