Here in the United States, medical marijuana quickly went from something that was ridiculed to something that was accepted as having a potential basis in reality, and now, we have doctor after doctor coming out in favor of its widespread medical uses.

One of them is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who you might’ve seen on CNN a few times and who recently started to endorse medical marijuana.

Dr. Gupta explained the journey to understand the plant’s medicinal properties in a 2014 article on CNN.com.

ENGLEWOOD — The Englewood City Council on Monday night stamped final approval on a measure that caps the number of marijuana businesses in the city at those already licensed to operate there.

Englewood is home to three medical marijuana dispensaries, with a fourth that has received city licensing approval but has not yet opened, according to city officials.

You’ve all heard the voice—at once authoritative and passive, weaving every soothing syllable into an epic yarn. It’s guided you through forbidding prisons, alien invasions, and the icy plains of Antarctica. That the voice is attached to an equally arresting, freewheeling persona has the cumulative effect of, to quote his Shawshank Redemption character, making him seem “like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world.”

SEATTLE, Washington — For the past 10 months, three marijuana markets have been operating simultaneously in Washington state: the street market, the medical market and the recreational market.

In the future, however, there will only be two. And contrary to some people’s expectations about legal recreational pot making drug dealers obsolete, it’s the medical dispensaries that will disappear first.

The ability to spot powerful new technologies or industries early on can result in eye-popping returns for investors. The brave few that initially recognized the potential of Tesla Motors' electric car, for example, have been richly rewarded over the past few years:

Right now, legalized marijuana and gene therapy are two emerging industries that could produce similar--or perhaps even better--returns for risk-tolerant investors. 

Medical marijuana has been just out of reach for Illinois residents for months, despite the fact that lawmakers made it legal more than a year ago.

So how soon will residents be able to actually buy the stuff?

The short answer is some time this fall, if all goes according to plan. The long answer takes into account what happens when things don't go according to plan, which has characterized the entire legal process from the beginning.

Medical marijuana became legal in Illinois more than a year ago, but there are several more steps that had to happen before residents could take part in the pilot program and start purchasing. 

No Medical Marijuana for Diabetes in Illinois

OTSEGO, Minn. - Kim Kelsey is ready to start getting medical marijuana to treat her son's epilepsy. The state's two manufacturers are almost ready, too.

On Monday, Kim joined the team from Minnesota Medical Solutions to give a guided media tour of the Otsego marijuana grow facility.

The greenhouses there are under such strict security measures that a former U.S. Secret Service agent has been employed with keeping it's facility completely secret and completely manned by cameras and armed guards every minute of every day.

Dr. Kyle Kingsley, the CEO of Minnesota Medical Solutions, says his facility is on schedule to produce the oil based marijuana medicines for the patients authorized to receive them by July 1st, when it is legally official.

Legal repercussions from operating a Washington state facility unclear

Experts are uncertain whether it’s legal for Vancouver-based medical marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis to build a facility in Washington state that will cultivate recreational pot | Photo: Shutterstock

Nowadays, a checklist for travellers heading south through the Peace Arch border crossing might include deals on eggs, shoes and – while they can’t admit it to U.S. federal border guards – recreational marijuana.

And with a U.S. market that dwarfs that of his native Canada, Terry Booth doesn’t see why companies north of the border can’t capitalize on the legal weed available to consumers in states like Alaska, Washington and Colorado.

I am a drug policy reform advocate.

Despite being a medical marijuana patient, despite founding and editing one of the first medical marijuana trade journals in the Midwest–the now defunct Midwest Cultivator– and despite the fact that cannabis has played a dramatic role in healing my PTSD, I am not a “cannabis” or “weed” activist.

Drug policy reformers work to reform our nation’s failed drug laws and protect families–all of them, especially the familieswith drug addicted loved ones.

As a newcomer to the legal cannabis space, the alphabet soup of chemical chemotypes, or distinct chemical compounds, can be overwhelming. These abbreviations should not be dismissed because they indicate the chemical composition of cannabis plants, revealing the level of psychoactive and medicinal properties.