Despite concerns from some lawmakers that they were taking the first step toward legalizing marijuana, the Texas House tentatively approved a bill Monday that would allow epilepsy patients in Texas to use medicinal oils containing a therapeutic component found in the plant.

ST. CROIX - The office of Sen. Terrence Nelson is seeking input from the public on proposed medical marijuana legislation.

Nelson, who is sponsoring the legislation, said at a press conference Tuesday that he intends to call it the Medicinal Cannabis Patient Care Act.

"You are invited to have input. We are inviting inclusion here. You are not excluded from this process," he said.

The plan is for the office to have the draft legislation completed and submitted to the Legislature's legal counsel by the end of the month, he said. The legislature's legal counsel then has up to 45 days after that to complete the bill and get it back to the sponsor.

Then, it gets assigned to a committee and goes through the committee process.

For the president of a food and animal testing lab, the marijuana industry is starting to look like a good investment.

Seth Wong and JJ Slatkin are putting $1.7 million into a new marijuana testing lab called TEQ Analytical Labs.

Wong, 34, is the president of Industrial Laboratories, where he’s worked since 2003. His family owns a majority of the 70-year-old Denver-based food and drug testing lab.

“We’re sitting here, watching the industry, and we realize that we’ve got these competitive advantages,” Wong said. “We have experience testing drugs, and we understand how to test raw materials like plants.”

Right up there with most cannabis colleges and almost all publicly traded marijuana companies, I am always cautioning my clients about marijuana franchising. Do not be wooed by glitzy pitches of your becoming the new owner of the next “McDonald’s of marijuana.”

The University of Denver’s law school is blazing a new trail in the professoriate.

Thanks to a $45,000 donation from Vicente Sederberg LLC, a self-described “full-service marijuana law firm” based in Denver, the Sturm College of Law has established what the firm says is the first professorship of marijuana law in the world.

The three-year professorship will be held first by Sam Kamin, a professor and director of the school’s Constitutional Rights and Remedies Program, the firm said in a news release.

“Our state and our school are poised to take a leadership position in this important new area of law and policy,” said Martin J. Katz, dean of the law school, in the release. “The rest of the country is watching. We need to do this right.”

Even though marijuana sales are legal to one degree or another in two dozen states, the business remains primarily a cash-based one where a buyer has to visit a physical location to make a purchase and the seller has no place to put the cash because most banks will not accept it.

The country’s biggest banks like JPMorgan and Wells Fargo will not accept deposits from businesses involved in the marijuana business, saying that because marijuana sales remain in violation of federal law they will not take the chance. Smaller banks have tried to serve marijuana businesses, but have run up against high reporting requirements and regulatory expenses.

The less controversial of two medical marijuana bills being considered by Nebraska lawmakers this year received overwhelming support Monday during its first appearance before the full Legislature.

Sen. Sue Crawford says her bill (LB390), while more limited in scope than a measure sponsored by fellow Bellevue Sen. Tommy Garrett, would allow people with life-threatening epilepsy to receive treatment more quickly.

The soonest Garrett's bill (LB643) could go into effect, if passed by lawmakers, would be July 2016. Regulatory complications could push that as far back as next December.

Crawford's bill would take effect almost immediately, assuming it gains support from 33 senators, the number required to pass a bill with an emergency clause.

AUSTIN, Texas (Christian Examiner) -- Texas bills legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing possession of it passed state House committees earlier this month, but will not become law in the Lone Star State.

House Calendar Committee Chair Todd Hunter (R- Corpus Christi) reportedly refused to schedule the two bills before the deadline for action, The Daily Chronic reported.

A northern Indiana judge rejected an argument by a man who asked that his marijuana possession charge be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor because he follows the Rastafarian faith.

Jerome Scott said that he was being charitable to others by cultivating marijuana to ease ailments from chronic back pain to cancer, the South Bend Tribune reports. St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jane Woodward Miller said he still broke the law.

SAN DIEGO: Cannabis has been illegal in Brazil – regardless of whether the origin is from marijuana or hemp. That has all changed thanks to two mothers, one in the United States and one in Brazil – and Real Scientific Hemp Oil™ (RSHO™), a Medical Marijuana, Inc.-marketed hemp product via its partnership with HempMeds Brasil™.