Maybe it caught your attention along I-75 south in Byron: a billboard advertising the sale of cannabis, also known as marijuana.

John Cater from Macon saw the YourCannabisOMS.com billboard. It’s an online marijuana dispensary.  

“Edible Cannabis is legal in Georgia, that’s what the billboard says, so it must be true,” Cater said.

State Representative Allen Peake of Macon, who crafted Georgia's medical marijuana law, says that's not the case.

“I don’t know how they're saying that. I wrote the law, I know the law, and medical cannabis oil is the only form that you can legally possess in Georgia,” Peake said.

He says to legally possess it, you have to have one of eight medical conditions and register with the state.

The marijuana business in the U.S. is growing like a weed.

Nationwide, legal sales of marijuana reached $5.7 billion in 2015, up from $4.6 billion the previous year, according to a report from ArcView Market Research. For 2016, the market is projected to grow to $7.1 billion. And by 2020, ArcView says, sales of legal marijuana in the U.S. could top $22 billion.

As it stands now, about two-thirds of America’s marijuana crop — the legal and illegal kinds — is grown outdoors, according to Mother Jones magazine.

Recently, two researchers took a look at states with legal medical marijuana and found something that could really mess with Big Pharma.

The Clarkston City Council has voted unanimously to approve the most liberal marijuana ordinance in the state, reducing fine from up to $1,000 to $75 for possessing less than an ounce, and eliminating the possibility of jail time for breaking municipal law.

“We just made history,” whispered Sharon Ravert, a Dahlonega resident and advocate for marijuana legalization, when she saw the council’s seven hands raised in unison on Tuesday.

 A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left.

A Georgia mom is helping to lead the charge to expand the state's limited medical marijuana law, which she says unfairly excludes many patients with severe medical conditions — including her 5-year-old autistic daughter — who could benefit from the plant's medicinal properties.

"There are some pretty tenacious parents who are fighting," said Jennifer Conforti, whose daughter, Abby, isn't covered by the current law. "... Why wouldn't you do that as a legislator? What is in it for you to make you not want to help families in the state?"

Second of two parts

From Maine to Miami, supporters of the cannabis movement are going to pass a torch symbolically shaped as a joint to garner support and show a united front in the fight to legalize marijuana.

It’s organized by the East Coast Cannabis Coalition (ECCC) and the so-called Unity Cypher begins its journey in Portland, Maine on April 14th, making  stops in NH, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, ME, DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, and FL. Along the way, organizers promise an appearance (and great photo op) at the United National General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in New York City on April 19 and the National Cannabis Festival in Washington D.C. on April 23.

Even while the majority of Georgia residents stood in favor of legislation to establish a cultivation and distribution system that would prevent the state’s registered medical marijuana patients from engaging in drug trafficking, a new report shows that Governor Nathan Deal had doomed the concept of growing weed on Georgia soil long before the bill ever had a chance to be slaughtered in the state legislature.

Speaking at a drug abuse summit in Atlanta, the US president committed to tackling heroin and prescription opioid epidemic with prevention and treatment.

Obama speaking at a National Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia on 29 March 2016. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Barack Obama committed Tuesday to take on America’s growing heroin and prescription opioid epidemic by devoting resources to prevention and treatment, rather than to the “war on drugs” policies of the last few decades.

A growing number of states are weighing whether to legalize marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But for many veterans, the debate is already over.

They’re increasingly using cannabis even though it remains illegal in most states and is unapproved by the Department of Veterans Affairs because major studies have yet to show it is effective against PTSD.

While the research has been contradictory and limited, some former members of the military say pot helps them manage their anxiety, insomnia and nightmares. Prescription drugs such as Klonopin and Zoloft weren’t effective or left them feeling like zombies, some say.