Two bills aimed at regulating California’s marijuana industry cleared key hurdles in the state Legislature on Wednesday after one North Coast lawmaker hauled a live pot plant into the Capitol to illustrate the value of the lucrative crop.

State Sen. Mike McGuire’s Medical Marijuana Public Safety and Environmental Protection Act, SB 643, advanced from the Assembly Business and Professions Committee on Tuesday and heads to the Health Committee next week.

The bill would establish a broad regulatory structure for California’s medical marijuana industry, which has been plagued by ineffective and confusing rules despite being legal at the state level since 1996.

TEMPE, AZ--(Marketwired - Jul 7, 2015) - American Green, Inc. (OTC PINK: ERBB) announced today that it has successfully completed the formation of American Green - Colorado Inc., a corporation formed in Colorado for the purpose of advancing the deal first announced to shareholders and the public in September of 2014. Herbal Elements will bring local licensing, relationships, knowledge and its corporate assets to the deal. American Green will support the build-out with it's proprietary technologies such as Truth Lighting and TrackX for the general expansion of CBD-rich cannabis strains.

As Illinois' fledgling marijuana industry slowly gets underway, some companies have begun hiring in anticipation of opening in the coming months, attracting a diverse set of candidates willing to take a chance on a business with an uncertain future so they can get in on the ground floor.

Take Rick Bower, 58, of downstate Dwight. After working for 31 years at commercial printing giant RR Donnelley, Bower has been hired as the inaugural director of warehousing at PharmaCann, where he will bring his expertise in workflow standardization and quality control to its Dwight and Hillcrest cultivation centers.

Israel’s leading producer of medical marijuana is joining a local group vying for a coveted license to distribute the drug in New York State.

Tikun Olam, which serves about a third of Israeli medical marijuana patients, has joined forces with the Compassionate Care Center of New York (CCCNY) in hopes of winning one of five licenses. If the state grants CCCNY the license, Tikun Olam will ship their products and conduct research through the group starting in January.

Forty-two other companies applied for the licenses, including a handful of health groups with Jewish ties.

“We’re looking for occasions to be involved,” said Tikun Olam’s CEO, Aharon Lutzky. “We found [in] CCC in New York a wonderful team and very serious people.”

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The Guild, a subscription-based marijuana delivery service, launched in San Francisco, California, this year — on April 20, or "420," no less.

Founded by two New Yorkers who transplanted west in pursuit of like-minded cannabis users, The Guild is being dubbed the "Birchbox of marijuana" for its familiar business model.

There are a lot of people that know how to grow marijuana. There are a lot of people that know how to make edibles. There are even a lot of people that know how to make concentrates. However, it’s fairly rare that someone knows how to not only grow marijuana and make marijuana products, but they also know how to make their products stand out. To make matter worse, there are not a lot of people in the marijuana industry that can offer up sound advice on the topic because either they don’t have much experience with marijuana branding, or they don’t have a track record of success with marijuana branding.

As of February 2015, recreational marijuana is legal in Alaska. Just over half of voters voted in favor of Ballot Measure 2, which made it legal to cultivate and possess small amounts of marijuana in Alaska. Adults age 21 and over may possess up to one ounce of marijuana and have up to six plants in their homes. But before aspiring retailers can set up shop and start selling in Alaska, the state needs to develop a regulatory framework for its sale and consumption.

Enter the Marijuana Control Board, the five-member board that will create this regulatory framework and manage its future development and enforcement.

Who’s on the Board?

As the high-stakes competition to win one of five coveted licenses to run a medical marijuana operation in New York gets down to the wire, an organization that proposes to grow and extract the drug in Glenville shared news on Tuesday that appeared designed to raise its local profile.

Fiorello Pharmaceuticals announced that, if selected as a medical marijuana operator, it would distribute $5 million in research grants statewide, including $1 million to Capital Region scientists, over five years. Research on marijuana's effects has been scant, in part due to federal restrictions.

The Zoning Board of Appeals yesterday put off a vote on a permit to the first company awarded a provisional state license to sell medical marijuana in Boston until the company confers with the most vocal opponents of its downtown location.

After hearing testimony from both sides in a packed meeting yesterday, ZBA Chairwoman Christine Araujo told Patriot Care Corp., which wants to open a dispensary at 21 Milk St. near Downtown Crossing, to come back Aug. 4 after talks with the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, whose chairman said the group opposes the location.

Illinois cannabis cultivation centers and dispensary owners have organized the only industry group whose board is limited to permit holders. The Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois’ (MCAI) board and its members have a shared vision on how to move the industry forward and are committed to making sure patients have access to cannabis as a viable medical treatment option.