Phillip Blanton is the type of red-blooded, honest American who, when the time comes to visit his terminally ill granddaughter four states away, hops in the car and drives there.

The bearded and rawboned 67-year-old former prison counselor lives in Newman, California, one of the countless dusty towns dotting the state’s interminable Central Valley—for the uninitiated, the Golden State’s own “Trump County.” He began 2017 on the open road, heading out via the West’s great freedom-casting freeways to Houston, where his 20-year-old granddaughter is afflicted with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Marijuana. Maybe you love it. Maybe you hate it. Perhaps, you do not care much about it.

The reality is that more states are accepting marijuana as a safe substance. Eight states now have full legalization, while nineteen states only have legalized medicinal marijuana.

In this episode, I interviewed three experts in different areas to talk about the state of the industry, specific strains for certain health disorders, and the opportunities for entrepreneurs.

The change in attitudes toward cannabis and in legal access to marijuana around the US over the past several years is staggering.

As of last fall, 57% of adults in the US said they thought marijuana should be legal, with only 37% taking the opposing view — which is essentially a reversal of the opinions held a decade ago.

And after November's elections, 20% of Americans live in a state that has voted to legalize recreational use. Far more live in states with some access to medical marijuana.

Patients suffering from painful ailments that include fibromyalgia, muscular dystrophy, shingles and rheumatoid arthritis should be able to get medical marijuana in Connecticut, a state panel of doctors urged Wednesday.

The proposed expansion of Connecticut's medical marijuana program to cover more types of diseases and conditions is part of a national surge toward making pot more available to help ease severe medical problems.

Florida patients who qualify for medical marijuana under a voter-approved constitutional amendment can start purchasing cannabis treatments in as little as 90 days, according to the state's top pot cop.

Whether patients would be able to start buying medical marijuana before the Department of Health approves rules to carry out the amendment --- a process that could take at least six months --- has been a source of confusion for many doctors, patients and businesses.

The first time someone told me it’s possible to consume cannabis without getting high, I scoffed. I was five years sober and my friend, newly in recovery, was telling me about a “special” kind of marijuana. Apparently, she said, it offered anti-anxiety and pain relieving effects without the high of “traditional” marijuana. I didn’t pay much attention. First, I didn’t have strong feelings about marijuana one way or the other – my drug of choice was always alcohol. Second, weed with medicinal benefits and no psychoactive effect seemed like the wishful thinking of a newly sober recovering addict. I wrote it off as a pipe dream of the uncomfortably abstinent.

Home delivery of medical marijuana is coming to the five boroughs.

Vireo Health, one of the five licensed pot growers in New York, plans to begin home delivery service in the city, Long Island and Westchester County within three months, the company announced Wednesday.

“New Yorkers have increasingly come to expect home delivery, and we plan on leveraging ‘last mile’ supply chain technologies to meet and exceed patient expectations,” said Vireo Chief Executive Officer Ari Hoffnung.

State health officials first announced plans to allow home cannabis consignment in August as part of a gradual expansion of the tightly regulated program, which launched in January 2016.

A new chain of Montreal-area medicinal marijuana clinics hasn’t yet opened, but its methods are already being challenged by Quebec’s college of physicians.

And while the man behind these clinics says he’s complying with the rules outlined by Health Canada’s medicinal cannabis program, he also admits that some of the doctors he works with are based out of province and will prescribe the drug via Skype teleconference.

This practice is illegal, according to the Collège des médecins du Québec.

On opening day of the state Legislature’s 2017 session, a bipartisan group of legislators touted the latest proposal legalizing South Carolina medical marijuana, indicating support for the previously rejected idea is growing in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Supporters said it’s time for politicians to allow people who are seriously ill or suffering from chronic pain to benefit from a plant that is a far better option than additive prescription opioids.

“I’m tired of seeing people suffering,” said Rep. Eric Bedingfield, R-Belton, whose 26-year-old son died last Easter after a years-long battle with opioid addiction that began with a high school soccer injury.