On Thursday, Gallup released a poll showing that 44 percent of Americans have said they've tried marijuana, the largest number the survey has ever recorded. This isn't too far off from what other polls have found (this Pew Research Center poll pegged the number at 49 percent), and given that people are being asked to admit to behavior that is illegal in most places, the true number is almost certainly higher. So we're past the point where most American adults have tried pot, which helps explain why support for legalization has also become a majority position.

Program eyed to train workers for medical cannabis facility

SCHENECTADY — A medical marijuana program could be coming to Schenectady County Community College this fall.

Fiorello Pharmaceuticals has pledged to provide $100,000 to SCCC if it is one of five contractors chosen by the state Health Department to provide marijuana to patients suffering from certain medical conditions.

The New York City-based company would open a facility in Glenville if it gets a license and is looking to launch a medical cannabis certificate program in Schenectady — the first in the nation, according to Fiorello — as part of a job-training partnership with the two-year college. The college may also help train developmentally disabled people to work at the facility.

Entrepreneurs are trying to boost sales by steering pot toward the Whole Foods crowd.

Upon entering Dixie Elixirs's headquarters in Denver, you're greeted by a big sign that reads: "The Future of Cannabis." Since its 2009 founding, Dixie has updated its image from a "pot soda" company to a gourmet THC edibles manufacturer whose carbonated drinks and snacks, containing ingredients like pepita and sea salt, look like they could be found on a shelf at Whole Foods. 

It's just one example of how marijuana businesses are rebranding the plant to distance pot from its hippie-stoner-outlaw culture and show off its appeal to a health-conscious, kale chip-eating crowd.

Somebody once said that advertising is not necessary, unless you want to make money.

Like Washington and Colorado, Oregon will restrict advertising options for marijuana businesses. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) is currently writing advertising rules for Oregon’s recreational marijuana program. The new rules may be similar to the OLCC’s advertising regulations for liquor; or, they may be more like tobacco regulations, another smokable product. Draft rules should issue in late September.

In calling for the crafting of a road map to develop the fledgling ganja industry, Delano Seiveright, a director of the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force, has renewed his warning that foot-dragging could result in the loss of potential economic advantages.

Speaking at the 'Imagine Jamaica: Unlimited Possibilities A Brand Jamaica Symposium' at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Seiveright suggested that the economic benefits of liberalising the ganja industry were huge.

"We can, in very short order, reassert our position as the world capital of ganja and move to spreading the obvious economic benefits across the board."

GrowBLOX Sciences is Making Big Moves in Anticipation of Opening Nevada Cultivation Facility

LAS VEGAS, July 23, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GrowBLOX Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:GBLX), a biopharmaceutical company with state-of-the-art technologies in plant biology and cultivation designed to produce consistent medicinal cannabis, today announced that over the course of the next few weeks certain changes in management personnel and operating procedures would soon be implemented in preparation for the commencement of cultivation operations through our majority-owned subsidiary, GB Sciences Nevada, LLC.

David Marquez likes representing the underdog. 

With 31 years as a foreclosure defense attorney under his belt, he says he's used to fighting “against the establishment.” But this summer he’s gearing his Long Island practice up for a completely new kind of legal battle. Any day now, the New York State Department of Health will select five companies out of the 43 hopefuls that applied for licenses to grow medical marijuana. That means “38 pissed-off companies” may have a bone to pick with the state. And Marquez wants to be their go-to lawyer.

Colorado's film office is subsidizing a movie about marijuana, but officials are emphasizing that it is a star-driven romantic comedy in which the state's most controversial crop just happens to play a role.

Members of the Colorado Economic Development Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to offer as much as $600,000 in film incentives to "Miss Cannabis," a feature film slated to star Melanie Griffith as a Beverly Hills housewife who loses her fortune in a ponzi scheme and moves to her last remaining property, an old vineyard. Only when she gets there does she find that the land is being rented to hippies who use for growing marijuana.

It went up in a puff of smoke.

But you can see it here -- the first-ever recreational marijuana ad that was to air on U.S. television but got pulled on Monday night due to legal concerns.

The ad shows footage of young people partying in clubs and hiking up mountains.The ad for Neos, a provider of cannabis oil and vaporizers, was planned to be shown on KMGH, an ABC affiliate in Denver, where marijuana is legal for medical and recreational use.

"You lead an adventurous life, always finding new ways to relax," says the voicever. "Now enjoy the best effects and control with Neos portable vape pen and recreate discreetly this summer."

New York’s medical marijuana program, approved and signed into law in July of 2014, is about to take off, with five out of some 43 applicants about to receive a licence any day now.

The competing companies who have applied for state Health Department licenses were left in the dark during the process, and New Yorkers have very few clues as to who will grow the herb, process it and sell it in a legal/non-smokable form.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was never an overly-enthusiastic proponent of medical marijuana, imposed strict rules and heavy oversight of operations before signing the bill into law.