The country’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, with more than 100,000 cannabis patients, avoided a four-year long shutdown effort by the federal government on Tuesday.

Harborside Health Center in Oakland has faced closure since 2012, when the federal government attempted to shut down the marijuana dispensary and seize the buildings that house the business, councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan told the SFGate.

Last year, it did $103.4 billion in net sales.

With more than 8,000 stores in all 50 states, it's actually the largest drug retail chain in the nation. And last week it did something that even I didn't see coming.

On one of its social networking blogs, Walgreens (NASDAQ: WBA) made a bold move...

It came out in support of medical marijuana.

Well, kind of.

In a blog that was posted on Walgreens' Tumblr account, entitled “Clarifying Clinical Cannabis,” you can find this:

A Lewiston business owners wants to open a cannabis club for medical marijuana patients, but city officials say it's not legal.

Shanon Gogan said her cannabis club is not a nightclub, but a small room with a table and eight chairs.

"We are going to check their medical card before they come back here to make sure they are legal and legit to use their medicine," Gogan said.

Gogan and her husband, Vincent Gogan, are medical marijuana patients. Vincent Gogan is a licensed caregiver.

The couple owns Legal Peaces smoke shop on Lisbon Street.

A Colorado proposal to certify organic marijuana has been rejected amid concerns the labels would imply pot is healthy.

The bill rejected in a legislative committee Tuesday would have created a first-of-its-kind label for marijuana that had been produced without pesticides.

The proposal failed 4-3 in a Senate committee. Some lawmakers said the labels could wrongly imply that marijuana is harmless.

Canada’s municipalities are in a tough position when it comes to pot. Faced with a previous federal government that had no interest in legalizing marijuana or modifying its obtuse mail-order medical-marijuana program, Toronto and Vancouver have swiftly become home to more than 250 dispensaries that operate outside the law, with more than 100 now open in Ontario’s capital.

A leading Auckland drug researcher is calling for regulated cannabis products to be sold legally in New Zealand. 

Massey University's Dr Chris Wilkins would like to see the adoption of a not-for-profit club model for cannabis.

The proposal would see licensed companies permitted to sell Government-approved cannabis products to registered adult members.

Products would only be produced and sold by the Government, ensuring a high price to restrict demand and generating tax revenue to support treatment counselling, health services and enforcement.

"The government will be the only producer and the only seller, and that's a means to keep the price high and also collect tax," says Dr Wilkins.

It wasn’t that long ago that the cannabis industry was considered to be a fringe industry. I remember when I co-founded this blog in 2010 how many of my friends and family thought it was silly. To be fair, not only was I jumping into the marijuana world when the blog started, I was also starting a blog. Blogs are very common now, but back then, they weren’t so much. My how things have changed for both blogs and the cannabis industry!

How does one find the best cannabis stocks to invest in? The Investing News Network got some tips on due diligence from Chris Milenkevich of Gotham Cannabis Associates.

Things have started to turn around for the cannabis market since the 2014 pot bubble, but it can still be difficult for investors to know how to find the best cannabis stocks to invest in.

For starters, marijuana isn’t yet legal for recreational use in Canada and in many states across the US. Furthermore, a number of states and provinces are looking at legalization for both medical and recreational marijuana use, making it difficult to keep track of what licensing requirements to look for when doing one’s due diligence.

Cannabis may join the herb and spice rack in California kitchens as the most populous U.S. state prepares for the possible legalization of recreational marijuana in November.

Chef Chris Sayegh is leading the way by taking haute cuisine to a higher place with his cannabis-infused menus in private homes for as much as $500 a head, or in "pop-up" banquets around Los Angeles for $20 to $200 a person. For now, diners must show their medical marijuana cards.

Grow Condos Inc (OTCMKTS:GRWC) has quickly become one of the most exciting names on the OTC markets. In less than a month, shares have tripled as investors have gone in search of the next hot pot stock for their portfolios. Investors have quickly learned to avoid many of the old pot stocks that have decimated their shareholders with dilution on the back of toxic financings. The answer is in find clean deals like GRWC that are primed to grow from what we like to call Green Rush 2.0 at Insider Financial.