One of the biggest selling points of Colorado’s Amendment 64 that voters approved in 2012, legalizing the sale and consumption of marijuana for recreational use, was the idea that cannabis would be treated like alcohol in both regulation and consumption. In fact, the bill was literally named “The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012.” While the state has generally done a fine job of abiding by the spirit of the law, one issue has proven to be more complicated than the others: Public consumption.

Across social media it’s ‘on message’ to despise Big Pharma and to promote the idea that government and pharmaceutical companies are engaged in the business of making people ill and feeding them with drugs in the pursuit of profit.

In the cannabis campaign it’s virtually compulsory to abuse, defame and promote conspiracy theories about GW Pharmaceuticals, the world’s leading developer of cannabis-based medicines.

Now GW Pharma is hardly ‘Big Pharma’. It’s annual revenues for 2014 were £30 million. By contrast, Pfizer’s 2014 revenue was $50 billion. But such trifling facts are of no concern to the keyboard warriors and trolls that plague the cannabis campaign and bring it into disrepute every day.

Three more Canadian medical cannabis producers have been issued production licenses for cannabis oils. Quebec’s Hydropothecary, BC’s Tilray and Saskatchewan’s Prairie Plant Systems (CanniMed) were all added to Health Canada’s production list recently, after initially licensing BC’s Whistler Medical and Ontario’s Peace Naturals late last week.

While none of these producers are yet allowed to sell any oils, extracts or derivatives, most expect to be able to sell in the coming weeks and months. Several companies are already in production.

The marijuana industry has been fighting an uphill battle for decades, but in recent years you could argue that it's been winning.

The marijuana movement pushes forward

Following decades of little to no support for a sweeping nationwide legalization of the currently illegal drug, nearly two-dozen states (and Washington D.C.) have passed legislation for medical marijuana since 1996. Taking it one step further, four states (and Washington D.C.) also allow consumers to purchase marijuana from licensed shops for recreational use.

Why the sudden change of heart on the part of consumers and states?

Mike Graham moved from row to row of his roughly 20,000 marijuana plants Wednesday afternoon, describing how his production and processing business is looking forward to the harvest.

“We’re moving right along here, and we’re excited to have a full season,” he said. “And have a season where we’re operating according to our own schedule.”

Graham is the proprietor at Natural Mystic Farms on Naneum Road, a state-licensed recreational cannabis producer-processor.

The plants grow in rows above ground, under hoops workers can tarp over to limit sunlight and stimulate flowering and create a greenhouse-like environment.

LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) -- Even before customers can buy recreational marijuana in Nevada, alcohol distributors want to get in on the profits.

Alcohol wholesalers want to earn a piece of that pie by distributing the drug. That's why many alcohol wholesalers are backing a 2016 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana. If passed, they'd be the middle men between growers and dispensaries.

Irene Lavis wants to see marijuana regulated.

"I think that's an awesome idea. It will keep the crime rates down, if you regulate it you will be able to track where the pot is going," says Lavis.

Nevada State Senator Tick Segerblom supports the measure.

For the medical marijuana industry, smoking weed is usually a good thing. But a raging wildfire in California is bringing a bleaker meaning to the phrase.

A wildfire in northern California that started last week has burned more than 69,600 acres as of Friday morning, including marijuana farms. More than 13,000 people in the area have been evacuated, and the fire is only 45% contained, according to Cal Fire, the state agency responsible for fire protection.

The agency reports that 43 residences and 53 outbuildings — auxiliary structures like barns and sheds —have been destroyed, eight structures have been damaged and about 6,500 homes, buildings and other structures are threatened by the spreading flames.

The former Douglas County biology teacher used to spend his weekdays cleaning beakers, grading quizzes and thinking up creative ways to teach the Krebs Cycle.

Now, Cullen and his business partner, Ralph Morgan, are the heads of a burgeoning retail empire that boasts 47 employees, about 55,000 square feet of industrial space across the metro region and more than $8 million in annual revenue.

“And here ensue all the ‘Breaking Bad’ jokes,” Cullen said with a bashful laugh.

No Pollos Hermanos, here, however.

Michael Irish is a longtime Oahu businessman best known as CEO of Diamond Head Seafood Wholesale and Keoki’s Lau Lau.

But next year, he may be involved in a different industry — growing marijuana and selling it at Hawaii’s newly legalized medical cannabis dispensaries.

Three weeks ago, the owner of nine kim chi and four sauce companies registered a new limited liability company, Hawaiian Isles Marijuana, with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Previous cannabis-related conventions and trade shows in Washington have lacked only one thing: cannabis.

That is about to change.

Given what he’s about to bring to Tacoma, the “M” in Cory Wray’s MBA might well stand for marijuana, a substance of which he claims to be a longtime consumer.

The Bethel High School and University of Washington Tacoma graduate, 32, has inked an agreement and begun promotion for the Northwest Cannabis Classic, a three-day event featuring speakers, seminars, a trade show with vendors and, again, cannabis itself.

Previous organizers have discovered that state law prohibits actual marijuana being present or being consumed at venues that hold a license allowing the consumption of alcohol.