The Texas Department of Public Safety is considering a policy change to the state’s limited medical-marijuana law that would raise the fees for dispensaries and growers from $6,000 to $1.3-million dollars. 

At the end of 2015, the Public Safety Commission passed an initial set of rules, part of which set the rate that would be imposed on businesses wanting to become dispensaries and grow operations at $6,000.  This month, the state agency proposed raising that fee to $1.3 million dollars.

A rendering of a 1 million-square-foot marijuana greenhouse and processing center AmeriCann Inc. hopes to build in Freetown.

On the eve of a vote that could legalize recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, a Colorado company is preparing to build the state’s largest marijuana greenhouse, a sprawling, high-tech complex that could eventually grow to nearly 1 million square feet.

Denver-based AmeriCann, Inc. completed a deal last week to lease a 53-acre parcel for the project near Route 24 in Freetown, where officials have welcomed the company’s proposed Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center as a potential economic boon.

Canada’s largest drug store chain has applied to be a licensed producer of medical marijuana, another sign that pharmacies are interested in playing a major role in a growing industry.

“We believe that allowing medical marijuana to be dispensed through pharmacy would increase access, safety, quality and security for the thousands of Canadians who use the drug as part of their medication therapy,” Shoppers Drug Mart spokesperson Tammy Smitham wrote in an e-mail.

Shoppers has no plans to start growing pot itself — they want to buy it from a grower. But under federal rules, patients are only able to buy medical marijuana from licensed producers.

Health Canada market data for the past few years shows that British Columbians and Quebecers appear to prefer the black market over Canada’s legal medical cannabis system. 

Despite being the second and third largest provinces in Canada, with over 8 million and 4.7 million people respectively, shipments to registered patients in Quebec and British Columbia are some of the lowest in the country. 

Patients registered in Quebec only received 2,457 shipments in August. BC, only 2,534. The same month saw 34,757 shipments to registered clients in Ontario and 12,986 in Alberta. Previous data shows similar figures in the past. 

With nine states voting on different forms of marijuana legalization on Election Day, the red and blue map U.S. residents are used to watching on election nights should have a little green on it.

Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington have passed recreational marijuana laws in the last four years. California, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona and Nevada have legalization initiatives on the ballot in November. Florida, Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota also have forms of medical marijuana legalization on the ballot next month.

The Puget Sound Business Journal looked back at Washington's recreational marijuana industry since the passage of Initiative 502 in November 2012 and the opening of the first retail store – Cannabis City – in July 2014.

Canada in danger of getting smoked by the competition as Ottawa stalls on cannabis

Canada is in danger of getting smoked by the competition because the marijuana industry isn't waiting for government legislation. American companies know it, and now Shoppers Drug Mart has shown it knows it too.

A public request by Shoppers to sell pot in its stores shows the "pusher" stigma has begun to fade. Shoppers is part of the Loblaws chain known across Canada for its family-friendly Canadian Superstores and President's Choice brands.  

CS Compliance Systems ran into trouble this month over its ability to accept credits, even though the Denver-based consulting and technology firm doesn’t sell marijuana.

Merely working with cannabis dispensaries was enough for CS Compliance Systems to have its credit card processing privileges revoked by the merchant service provider it’s working with, operations manager Ryan Lewis said.

“It’s huge bump in the road” for growing the small company, Lewis said. 

This situation is also a reminder of the strange financial spot the marijuana industry is currently in with banks and other companies that are hesitant to work with dispensaries and other marijuana-related businesses without a green light from the federal government.

There is certainly no wrong way to cultivate cannabis, as anyone growing cannabis plants in their basement can attest. But, there’s definitely a right way to cost-effectively grow high-quality plants. Expert cultivators optimize key performance indicators like pounds per light, grams per watt, or grams per square foot of flower canopy, since utilities and labor tend to be the most expensive component of any indoor grow operation.

Science laboratories that test marijuana in Oregon say the state's recreational cannabis supply undergoes more testing, and is safer than any food product consumers buy.

A handful of labs just got their state accredited license this October.

Oregon has set the strictest standards in the industry.

"Residual solvents, potency, terpenes and pesticides over there," Molly Lyons points out all the machines she uses to test hundreds of marijuana samples every day.

Her workplace, GreenHaus Analytical Labs in Southeast Portland, is among the first accredited to do it. They test several dozen samples from each marijuana harvest, and the oil and concentrates that it can be made into, for pesticides, mold and potency.

Alaska's new rules could be strictest in the nation.

A hip new industry is attracting excited workers, but ongoing regulations might block some from working in the new field.

To work in a licensed cannabis business in the state of Alaska, employees have to pass a training course for a marijuana handler’s permit. Proposed permit requirements, though, are causing some friction for marijuana industry hopefuls who say the potential rules are “unreasonably impracticable.”

If a new draft is accepted, Alaska marijuana handler card requirements would be the strictest in the country and be inconsistent with similar Alaska alcohol employee permits.