Legal U.S. pot sales soared to $5.4 billion for 2015, up 17.4 percent from $4.6 billion in 2014, according to data released Monday by the ArcView Group, which tracks the cannabis markets.

The figures include medical and adult consumer sales. However, the annual gain was largely fueled by the explosive growth in consumer sales, as some states have approved adult recreational marijuana use. Adult use sales grew to $998 million from $351 million in 2014, according to the research. And voters in more states, including California, are likely to take up the issue in 2016.

As voters in more states embrace legalized marijuana sales, the burgeoning cannabis industry has gone from a curiosity to a bona fide booming market.

Just how big is the market for legal pot? A new report by a leading marijuana industry investment and research firm found legal cannabis sales jumped 17%, to $5.4 billion, in 2015 and they will grow by a whopping 25% this year to reach $6.7 billion in total U.S. sales.

The numbers are staggering, considered the first recreational dispensaries opened for business in Colorado only two years ago.

OTTAWA - Some of Canada's biggest producers of medical marijuana want Ottawa to implement advertising regulations similar to those that govern the sale of alcohol, as they await the Liberal government's long-promised legal recreational market.

A concerted policy push is underway from Tweed Inc., Mettrum Ltd. and Bedrocan Canada Inc. — three licensed producers that operate under Health Canada's medical marijuana program.

Bedrocan and Tweed are subsidiaries of Canopy Growth Corp., a combined company that was formed in a merger.

The group wants the government to move quickly to create and implement legislation for a future recreational market in order to avoid a "Wild West" scenario.

The Colorado experiment in legal marijuana is being watched around the country. That’s hardly surprising. The state, being the first in the country to legalize marijuana, is setting the standard for the management and control of this social experiment.

It’s not an easy task, and it will take time and many false starts and failures to create a smooth, reliable system with which to administer and manage the legal sale and use of marijuana.

One can argue that it was a bad decision, but the fact is voters of Colorado said marijuana use will be legal in this state.

OK, that's one order of cannabis. Would you like fries with that?

Oregon's adventure into the world of legal retail marijuana is apparently about to get a quintessentially American convenience – a pot store with a drive-thru.

The Curry Coastal Pilot reported Saturday that Green Life Oregon in the coastal town of Gold Beach will soon open a dispensary with a drive-up window across the street from the hospital.

Cannabis, rather than Arby's, would pass hands at a marijuana drive-thru planned for Gold Beach. (The Oregonian)Joseph Rose | The Oregonian/OregonLive 

In a few months, the state Department of Health will select the state’s first licensees for medical marijuana dispensaries. The application process closed just Friday.

On Saturday, hundreds of people stopped by the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall for this year’s Hawaii Cannabis Expo being held over the weekend.

Some attendees told KHON2 they wanted to learn how they can get medical marijuana cards, and be more educated on cannabis overall.

“I was actually looking for a doctor to get a card,” said Jeanette Mahi of Kapolei. “I’m just kind of looking around. I get migraines and marijuana helps me.”

DENVER -- Colorado's restrictions on marijuana advertising are aimed at protecting impressionable children. A local man said the laws are failing and the loopholes are easy to work around.

Greenfield is now serving dabble extracts,” Scott Carlson, of Aurora, reads a text message his wife received more than a month ago.

“We have two grams of pure fire wax $45,” he reads from his phone.

He said he was surprised to learn it came from a Denver-based marijuana shop they've never been to.

“We don`t know how they got the number,” he said.

Carlson and his wife replied to the message, STOP, as instructed in the text to be taken off the mass text database.

The Cannabis Supply Company which will open its doors Saturday is just the beginning for owners Josh Millar and Steve Tota.

The Brant County residents, who live in the Burford area, near Norwich, already are looking to expand the Brantford business, which will sell supplies needed by medical marijuana consumers at its location in Unit 5B of a plaza at 164 Colborne St. W. The store will open at 10 a.m.

"This is phase one," said Millar. "We're looking to supply those who are using medical marijuana now and we're looking to be able to sell medical marijuana, as well."

It was 2012, and Douglas Leighton wanted to pour some money into marijuana.

Leighton, the co-founder of a Boston-based hedge fund called Dutchess Capital, had done his homework. He saw public opinion shifting in favor of cannabis. Laws had already begun to follow, including the legalization of medical marijuana in Massachusetts.

And as the legal landscape changed, a $50 billion black market was about to emerge into the sunlight—marking a major investment opportunity.

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Plus, he admitted, he just enjoyed smoking pot.

“It’s what got me interested in it, definitely,” Leighton said.