Faces Human Capital Management, a leader in assisting the legal cannabis industry with its unique human resources issues, looks at some of the common blunders it sees in the rapidly-evolving marijuana sector.

DENVER (October 24, 2016) -- Employment demands for the legal cannabis industry have soared in recent years. According to the Marijuana Business Daily’s 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, cannabis-related companies in the U.S. are now employing between 100,000 and 150,000 workers.

If Alan Gertner is right, marijuana advocates and prospective dispensaries have a reason to be excited about the future.

Gertner is the founder of Tokyo Smoke, a company that specializes in coffee, clothing, and cannabis. He was in Chatham Thursday, speaking at a TEDx conference about his life and the path he took to starting the unique, culture-based company.

“Marijuana is ultimately going to involve branding,” Gertner said. “If you look at really any other industry, any other consumer product … it’s fairly obvious to see that brands play a meaningful role in defining customer experience.”

This past weekend, medicinal marijuana patients, business folk, and "potrepreneurs" converged at the New West Summit, San Francisco's business conference related to all things marijuana.

But there was something unusual about the event.

I didn't hear one person say the word "pot."

Or weed. Grass. Dope. Herb. Mary Jane. Ganja. 420.

Richard Branson cracked during his keynote address that entrepreneurs in the space "like to get stoned occasionally" and he would enjoy a "spliff" after his talk — maybe the only time marijuana slang was used on stage during the weekend.

Whether your garden is big or small, outdoors or indoors, training your cannabis plants will greatly increase the quality and yield of your grow. Techniques are divided into two categories: LST (low stress training) and HST (high stress training). LST does not involve directly damaging your plant, while HST involves breaking or removing parts of the plant.

More than two years after Colorado began selling marijuana for recreational use, cannabis consumers have access to pot that is more potent than ever.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of different strains among thousands of plants grown legally under bright lights and fans in giant warehouses across the state.

"I think we're the best industrial growers of cannabis in the world," Medicine Man Marijuana CEO Andy Williams said of his company.

Williams owns a high-tech cannabis grow facility. He gave CNN a glimpse inside one section of it: a 12,000-square foot operation with machines that regulate temperature and humidity, and filter the air to create the best environment for fine-tuning cannabis concoctions.

Medical marijuana is about to become a whole lot more accessible in Israel with pharmacies across the country expected to soon start providing the substance. Israel’s largest pharmacy chain, Super-Pharm, which has 225 branches across the country, has been meeting with health ministry officials over recent weeks to allow prescription dispensation of cannabis, Israeli newspaper Haaretz Thursday.

The Canadian cannabis sector continues to be blazing hot over the last year, especially in the last 2 months.  The following chart shows the performance of the Canadian marijuana sector in general, the Marijuana Index Canada  contains a list of 10 publicly traded Canadian companies in the space, their stock prices and market caps.  Just looking at this chart, there has been a parabolic rise in share price since May of this year.  Most parabolic rises like this are usually followed by a correction and then a basing period before any further advances can be made.

As Canada inches closer to legalized marijuana, safety standards for dispensary-sold medical cannabis are being brought under greater scrutiny.

In an investigation done by The Globe and Mail in August, one third of medical marijuana samples collected from Toronto area dispensaries showed the presence of chemicals and mould that could cause a variety of illnesses in users, such as lung infections, particularly in patients with compromised immune systems.

One of the Toronto dispensaries whose product failed that test was WeeMedical, a chain that also operates in Powell River on Marine Avenue.

While licensed producers can test their products and have been required to, dispensaries are not able to because product testing is currently illegal for them.

Citing momentum in the medical marijuana industry, a San Diego-based real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on acquiring medical-use grow facilities has set its sights on the public market.

UK biotech firm is close to achieving approval for a new drug to treat childhood epilepsy

A UK drug company specialising in cannabis-based medicines has ditched its stock market listing in London in favour of trading exclusively on New York’s Nasdaq, but claims it will keep its headquarters in Cambridge.

GW Pharmaceuticals, one of the UK’s most promising biotech firms, is close to achieving approval for a new drug to treat Dravet Syndrome, a severe form of childhood epilepsy.