Illinois may miss a deadline to rule on proposals for more qualifying conditions for medical marijuana. The main sponsor of the program in the General Assembly says he’s not worried. 

Monday went by without Illinois Public Health Director Nirav Shah ruling on whether to add 11 illnesses to the 40 to be covered when the state’s first medical marijuana dispensaries open. That will likely be sometime in the fall. 

The list of recommendations from Illinois’ Medical Cannabis Advisory Board include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, osteoarthritis, and migraines. 

I’m excited that Rhode Island, my recently adopted home state, might become the first on the East Coast to legalize a commercial marijuana market. And not just for the obvious reasons, such as changing a war on drugs that disproportionately targets people of color or the option of purchasing and smoking marijuana without fear of jail time.

Creative Edge Nutrition, Inc. (OTC PINK: FITX), a nutritional supplement company focusing on active lifestyles, announces an update to its shareholders.

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As cannabis farmers across the country struggle to produce healthy crops without the benefit of any federally approved pesticides, Neutra Corp. (OTCBB: NTRR) is working with its joint venture partner 

August has been a rocky month for the international business community. Global markets have been whipped into a strange frenzy in the dog days of summer. First it was over concerns that Greece might default on its sovereign debt and leave the Eurozone. Then the strange ping pong drama of the meltdown of the Chinese stock market and the devaluation of the yuan gripped the financial world. The global economic temperature this month is absolutely “hot.”

It’s a busy afternoon at Longview’s Freedom Market as customers stream in to pick up their evening weed. Within 15 minutes, more than 10 customers peruse an array of pot varieties such as “Animal Cookie” and “Sour Diesel.” Every one of them hands over cash.

Pot is predominantly a cash-only business because federal regulations make it difficult for banks to handle money from marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law. That leaves customers unable to use debit or credit cards. And it burdens businesses with high security costs, such as using armored vehicles and security guards.

But customers at Freedom Market now have another option, thanks to a new service called PayQwik that offers a cash-free alternative for marijuana businesses and customers.

Not to harsh your mellow, but a new study suggests that labelling of marijuana, even by medical growers, is frequently inaccurate.

Dr. Jonathan Page of UBC's Department of Botany says users who seek out specific strains for medical or other reasons will often find their weed is not as advertised.

"Those classifications are actually quite inaccurate. The plants that were reported to be sativa were often not genetically sativa, and vice versa with indica as well," he said.

Dr. Page studied the DNA of 81 strains of marijuana from a medical grower in Ontario when he found the dubious labelling, suggesting this problem goes beyond illegal growers.

Nearly half of all states in the U.S. have some form of cannabis legalization on the books, but that has not been enough to protect businesses from prosecution by both local and federal authorities. Broad and undefined state laws have allowed the industry to grow very quickly in many parts of the country, but have left businesses with little-to-no direction as to standards for legal compliance. This has left them out in the open with insufficient legal protection. While the freedom of broad laws allows a large amount of expansion and innovation, only comprehensive regulation provides legal protections for companies in the cannabis space.

LAS VEGAS -- Dr. Cindy Orser, the Chief Science Officer of DigiPath Labs, the cannabis testing subsidiary of DigiPath, Inc. (OTCQB: DIGP), was recently interviewed by United Patients Group about the lack of consistency in today's medical cannabis testing industry. In her talk with the online resource for medical cannabis information, she explained that the state-to-state variations in cannabis laws are hurting patients because their lack of uniform requirements makes standardization impossible.