PORTLAND, Ore. -- The number of medical marijuana dispensaries has grown dramatically over the past few months. Licensed dispensaries outnumber liquor stores in Portland almost three-to-one.

Soon, those dispensaries may be able to sell to any adult.

An Oregon bill is now sitting on the governor's desk that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to begin selling retail pot to the public on October 1.

Right now, those dispensaries can only sell to patients with a medical marijuana card.

What’s the average amount of time an investor spends looking at a pitch deck?

3 minutes and 44 seconds.

You read that right. This short attention span is clear proof that presenters need to hone the art of the (short) pitch.

If you are looking for a starting point, here are 5 essential elements:

1. Optimize Your Design

Still looking for plans for the 4th of July weekend? Never mind a bed and breakfast -- How about a “Bud and Breakfast?”

Marijuana-themed inns are sprouting all over Colorado like...well, weeds. Offering "wake and bake breakfast", "4:20 Happy Hour", and cannabis-infused massages, these lodges are just one of the many creative ways entrepreneurs in the Centennial State are capitalizing on the legal recreational marijuana market.

Other places like marijuana adult camps are more like resorts and “have everything down to even a wine and food pairing with a particular strain,” said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, a brokerage services provider in New York.

Friday, June 5 was the deadline for medical marijuana grower-dispensary hopefuls in New York State to file their applications with the State Department of Health. Early that morning, Kurt Van de Wetering and his team at THC Health Inc. hand-delivered their application, which filled two, 5-inch-thick binders with well over 1,000 pages. THC Health was one of 43 applicants (according to Buffalo Business First) vying for just five licenses being awarded by the state. Now they wait.

Judging by the scene at Pot Luck Events on Wednesday night, one would never guess the state has advised the club to shut down.

Members had come to the downtown Anchorage marijuana social club to smoke, take dab hits and watch the “Chronic Comedy Show,” while eating free candy provided at the nonalcoholic bar. “Bud of the week” samples -- provided by growers, not the club, owner Theresa Collins explained -- were displayed on a table in the back of the room.

Yet the club, which has been open since March, is one of six businesses that received cease-and-desist letters from Cynthia Franklin, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and the newly created Marijuana Control Board, in late June.

The business of selling marijuana legally — for medical and recreational purposes — is expanding. But so are concerns that African-Americans are being shut out of this new industry.

Late this spring, Lift had a chance to visit Canna Farms’ medical cannabis facility in Hope, British Columbia. Nestled up against the Coastal and Cascade mountains in the Eastern Fraser Valley, the facility currently covers a little over 7,000 sq ft, with room for expansion over time.

Sometimes the most difficult plight of new investors in the cannabis sector is to know where to start learning and what information to trust. If you are planning on investing long-term, it is important that you learn as much as you can about the companies.

With current cut-and-paste technology, compiling a file about a company is easy, so start with basics, add on from there, and you may be surprised at how fast the information grows. There are a number of websites reporting news and developments in cannabis research and investment; however, they are not totally unbiased, but your knowledge search should be, so read several sources to start choosing companies to investigate.