Bio-Tech Medical Software Inc. has two state contracts, it operates in 18 states and outside the U.S., and it recently closed a $5 million series A round of funding.

But the company struggles with an issue facing any business operating in the marijuana industry today, even though it isn’t directly dealing with the plants.

“One of our greatest desires is to be seen as legitimate,” said Patrick Vo, co-CEO of the company. “To not be seen as barely legalized drug dealers, but to be seen as legitimate business people.”

New legislation has rocked the medical marijuana world, taking the traditional grow op from suburban basements to mammoth warehouses. The new pot kings own suits, have smart haircuts and list their companies on the TSX, and they’re dead set on getting rich.

THE EGGHEAD
Marc Wayne, CEO of Bedrocan, a grower and importer of vaunted Dutch medical pot.

AUSTIN -- The chair of the committee that controls the fate of medical marijuana legalization in Texas said Monday that "there are still a lot of questions to be answered" about the legislation, indicating it is unlikely to win approval before next week's deadline.

"The bills need a lot of time and attention," state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, said in an interview outside a forum here about health issues in the Legislature.

The House Public Health Commitee chair's comments came after a discussion in which she said she had heard "compelling" testimony about possible benefits of marijuana for medical conditions but wanted to study how legalization has played out in states such as Colorado and California.

Even though several US states have voted to legalize marijuana, it's still not clear how best to regulate it. But there are steps that legislators can take to prevent the newly legal drug from falling into the hands of minors, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. A new report in the medical journal Pediatrics outlines four tested tactics for proposed regulation.

After months of legal dispute over the 40 Acres Medical Marijuana Growers Collective, which caused it to relocate in April, the collective filed a lawsuit against the city April 20 alleging discrimination.

The lawsuit filed by the collective’s co-founder, Chris Smith, against the city of Berkeley and its Medical Cannabis Commission alleges that the city has allowed the three currently licensed dispensaries in Berkeley to unlawfully monopolize the local sale of medical marijuana.

Smith, who believes the dispensaries are overcharging people, said he opened up his own medical marijuana collective to “find a way to get medicine at a more realistic price.”

Editor’s note: Amid discussion about the potential legalization of medical marijuana in Louisiana, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz has offered his perspective in this column. This is the latest of a series of his articles on the subject.

Myth 1: ‘I can’t become addicted to marijuana’

Marijuana may not be as addictive as tobacco or heroin, but 1 in every 6 teens, (and 1 in every 11 adults) who ever try marijuana will become addicted to it. Just as with alcohol and tobacco, most chronic marijuana users who attempt to stop “cold turkey” will experience an array of withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, restlessness, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and/or cravings. These are classic signs of dependency.

Excerpted from "Big Weed: An Entrepreneur's High-Stakes Adventures in the Budding Legal Marijuana Business"

When I left my house on a beautiful morning in February 2013, I was carrying $40,000 in cash in my backpack. The sun was just hitting the foothills of the Rockies as I drove out of Lowry, the neighborhood where I live in Denver. As you might surmise from the contents of the backpack, it was going to be a big day.

My first appointment was the most important. I was meeting with an architect I’d hired several months ago to design a building I was planning to construct somewhere within Denver city limits. The first building of its kind anywhere in the world.

Cannabis, colloquially known as marijuana and by numerous other names, is probably the most common but at the same time most controversial soft drug. While the opponents often argue against marijuana by stating it is the so called “gateway drug” which increases the probability of trying harder, more dangerous drugs, defenders point out its healing properties and claim it is not as habit-forming as people generally think. Whatever your attitude to this phenomenon is, check out these 25 facts about cannabis you might have not known.

John & Diana Holland with a photo of their son, Jonmarc Holland.(Photo: Charles Levy/Special to the Demo)

Diana Holland got a call from her son, Jonmarc, on a Tuesday in early April. It would be the last time she would hear from him.

"I can't deal with all these problems," Diana Holland recalled her 27-year-old son saying. "I'm just exhausted dealing with all my problems. The pain is just driving me crazy."

"He said, 'Mom, I'm going to go lay down now.' And that's what he did," she said.

She tried to call back, but got no answer.

Three days later, Leon County Sheriff's deputies found his body in a small ravine in a patch of woods next to the family's North Tallahassee home after he'd taken his life April 7.

Louisiana lawmakers have convened the 2015 legislative session. Already multiple bills have been filed to change how the state treats marijuana consumers, including those who use marijuana for medical purposes.