Laura Costa’s son and husband moved quickly with pruning shears as they harvested the family’s fall marijuana crop, racing along with several workers to cut the plants and drop them in plastic bins ahead of an impending storm.

The farm, hidden along a winding mountain road in a remote redwood forest, is just one of many illegal "grows" that make up Northern California’s famous Emerald Triangle, a marijuana−producing mecca at the intersection of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties.

FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTCmarkets: BITCF), a leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency developer, specializing in both blockchain and online merchant payment solutions for medical marijuana dispensaries and other high-risk merchant accounts and services, today announced the signing of a merchant account processing agent agreement with a credit card processor for the states of California and Oregon. Under the agreement, BITCF will provide a full suite of financial services for the medical marijuana industry: merchant processing and POS solutions through its alliance network, a fully compliant, user friendly solution to accept Credit and Debit Cards through traditional Merchant Card Processing networks.

Colorado’s marijuana industry generated a whopping $2.39 billion last year, according to a new report from the research collaborative The Marijuana Policy Group.

If the numbers are right, Colorado’s still budding cannabis industry is already worth more than the much-celebrated craft beer industry, the report officially released Wednesday shows.

Last year, Colorado’s small and independent beer makers generated $1.7 billion, according to a report released earlier this year by the Colorado Brewers Guild.

Alaska’s growing marijuana industry is attracting workers, but proposed regulations for employees that many have deemed too harsh may keep industry hopefuls from entering the field.

State Marijuana Control Board Chairman Peter Mlynarik said the rules are meant to ensure new hires have some sort of background check. But critics question why they are inconsistent with those required for similar worker permits for Alaska’s alcohol businesses.

Steven Cehula, who plans on working in the industry, said the proposed rules for occupational licensing “are incongruent with the voice of the people and unfair.”

Pot funded more than 18,000 jobs in the state last year, a new report found

Legal marijuana has become a big business for Colorado, with an impact of $2.39 billion in 2015 alone, according to a report released this week.

The cannabis industry is the fastest-growing business sector in the state, funding more than 18,000 direct and secondary full-time jobs in 2015, according to a report from the Marijuana Policy Group, a Denver-based research firm that consults on marijuana policy.

The group anticipates that Colorado’s marijuana industry will surpass tobacco by 2020 as a source of tax revenue.

In an ideal world, influential faces and figures wouldn’t have any influence whatsoever on pot legislation. The reason being that rather than a subject of propaganda, campaigning and persuasive tactics on both sides, the decisions would be made in accordance with facts. With evidence. With the truth. But this just isn’t the case at all – we refer you back to a prior article you may or may not have checked out by now, in which the anti-pot camp in Massachusetts made it clear that the truth was of no interest to them. If you haven’t watched the video, go do it now. That is, if you’ve got a strong stomach – it’s not easy to get through without barfing!

The majority of respondents to a Pharmacy Business poll have said pharmacists should be allowed to prescribe medical cannabis.

Although the poll attracted just 69 responses, a resounding 60 or 87% said pharmacists should prescribe the drug, which has not been legalised by the UK government despite campaigning from healthcare professionals and MPs.

Last month the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, chaired by Lady Meacher, called for cannabis to be legalised for medicinal use in the UK. Countries such as Holland, Germany, Spain and 25 US states have legalised access to medical cannabis.

Nine percent of respondents to the short poll said cannabis should not be legalised and 4% said they didn't know.

Aphria announced today that it has entered into an Intellectual Property transfer agreement with Copperstate Farms, LLC ("Copperstate"). Arizona's medical cannabis program was approved by voters in 2010. At the same time as securing a licence to produce and sell medical cannabis, Copperstate purchased a 40-acre (equivalent to 1.7 million square feet) high-tech, Dutch style greenhouse facility in Snowflake, AZ. Copperstate has one of the largest medical cannabis greenhouse facilities in Arizona.

With five states voting on marijuana legalization next month, this is a pivotal year for marijuana policy no matter which way the contests turn out. The results will determine whether marijuana reform gains momentum heading into the next presidential administration or whether the pace of change will slow.

One year after the legalization of recreational marijuana, Oregon’s pot industry is booming with more than $400 million in projected sales in 2016.

But like any new industry, pot entrepreneurs are faced with the challenge of building a strong brand and developing new products to attract underserved customers.

The industry has to work fast to establish itself as a leading manufacturer and retailer of marijuana products because cannabis will probably be legal in the United States in a few decades, predicted Renee Spears, creator of Smuggle, a cannabis products retailer.