SAN FRANCISCO - Lawyers and pot dealers have long intersected in criminal court, but as marijuana goes mainstream, attorneys have been working to keep sellers and growers legit.

Marijuana divisions are popping up at law firms to advise pot shops on where they can locate, what their websites can say and how to vet new clients.

"It's definitely something that established firms are dipping a toe into, though they are being very cautious, and rightly so," said Sam Kamin, a professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law who teaches a class about representing the marijuana industry.

After generations of prohibition, marijuana is finally finding a place in the legal market. The history of the outlawed cannabis plant goes way back, all the way to early 1900s. In fact, before then, growing cannabis and hemp plants were encouraged by governments, as it provided an immensely durable material that had seemingly-limitless uses. Then, at some point in the 1920s and 1930s, cannabis became a pariah and was demonized in the eyes of the general public.

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With states legalizing marijuana by popular vote, some politicians, including Boston mayor Marty Walsh and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, are still calling marijuana a gateway drug.

Sheriff Mike Boudreaux speaks at a Friday press conference about the raiding of a Delano-based compound that included more than 49 “nursery-style” green houses filled with marijuana plants.(Photo: Stephanie Weldy/Visalia Times-Delta)

For sheriff deputies, it was the largest pot bust of the county's current marijuana season after raiding a large-scale, "nursery-style" marijuana grow Thursday morning in Delano.

The raid led to the arrest of 30 individuals of Laotian descent and the seizure of 2,600 pounds of partially processed marijuana, worth an estimated street value of over $2.6 million, and 49 pounds of fully processed marijuana, worth a projected $50,000.

Texas is known for many things, but legal cannabis isn’t one of them -- yet. Although the state hasn’t legalized marijuana use at this point, one enterprising incubator has taken on a number of pot entrepreneurs making big plans for the next few years.

The Texas Cannabis Industry Association (TCIA) has already begun working with nine startups on everything from business plans to legal advice. It also lobbies on cannabis policy issues at the state level.

Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose has reiterated her concern over the City of Vancouver's proposal to regulate retail marijuana stores, calling on the mayor to instead close the operators down.

"Storefront dispensaries are not part of the Health Canada regime in any way," Ambrose said Friday. "What they are is commercial entities selling pot on street corners.

From left, Surrey teens Jordan Smith with twins Connor and Duncan Fesenmaier at the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20. The high school students were protesting the use and legalization or marijuana. Photograph by: Amy Reid , Surrey Now

VANCOUVER — There was a new voice at the annual 4/20 pot protest at the Vancouver Art Gallery this year: Three Surrey high school students who weren’t there to light up.

Wearing anti-pot T-shirts and sporting gas masks, twins Duncan and Connor Fesenmaier and Jordan Smith from Princess Margaret Secondary took the trek to Vancouver to protest the use of marijuana and spread their anti-legalization message.

As one man quite accurately dubbed them, they’re the “bud busters.”

Israeli research and development in traditional areas like agriculture technologies are crystallizing into new market areas for cannabis

Not long before flower children of the Sixties started talking peace and love and smoking pot, an Israeli researcher made a landmark study deciphering the chemical makeup of its active ingredient, THC.

Using an 11-pound lump of Lebanese hash seized by the national police, Raphael Mechoulam identified and synthesized the first known cannabinoid from cannabis, among an estimated 60 to 85 known compounds. He’d go on to discover more.

Lawyers will go before a Federal Court judge in Halifax in June to ask the court to certify a proposed class action on behalf of 40,000 medical marijuana users whose privacy was breached by Health Canada in 2013.

There are 2,105 Nova Scotia class members in the case.

A confidentiality order protects the real names of the two lead plaintiffs, a Nova Scotia man who works as a health-care professional and an Ottawa woman who works in the legal field. In court documents, they are identified under the pseudonyms Joe Doe and Suzie Jones.

June 11 and 12 have been set aside for the certification hearing.