The marijuana industry is growing up.

The five-year-old National Cannabis Industry Association, the trade group for legal marijuana businesses, has hired a pair of Washington lobbying firms to push legislation to allow its members better access to banks, the group said.

The NCIA is now working with Heather Podesta + Partners, a Democratic firm, and Jochum Shore & Trossevin, which has deep relationships with Republican lawmakers. Those firms join the NCIA’s in-house lobbyist, Michael Correia, who has been on staff since 2013.

“We’ve gone from simply seeking to have our industry’s issues taken seriously to bipartisan legislation introduced in both chambers,” said Aaron Smith, the NCIA’s executive director.

Public attitudes towards weed have softened so quickly that anti-marijuana activists are starting to look likehistorical anachronisms.

While the radical change in public attitudes toward marijuana has been swift, it also hasn't been overnight. This animated map shows how it took decades of effort — and a major push from below by younger Generation X and millennial voters — to change state laws, and people's minds, on marijuana legalization in the United States:

More and more Americans are supporting marijuana legalization — and it's a fight that is picking up steam around the world.

And now, it looks like the UK and Australia could join the growing list of countries loosening the grip on marijuana use.

So what brought marijuana legalization to the front of the debate in both of these countries? Here's a closer look: 

United Kingdom

In the UK, a petition to legalize the use, sale and production of marijuana has gathered nearly 160,000 signatures in just five days.

spite previously championing states’ rights, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) threatened on Tuesday to ignore the legalization of marijuana in Colorado if elected president,Bloomberg News reported.

“If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it,” Christie said during an event in Newport, New Hampshire. “As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.”

The remark follows a longstanding pledge by the governor to institute a federal crackdown against the drug. In April, he told CNN that he considered it a “gateway drug.”

“we were all partying the night before. We weren’t expecting any action because we were in a support unit. It was the only time I ever went into combat stoned. You get really alert when you are stoned because you have to be.”

Charges have been dropped against an injured Iraq war veteran who was arrested after being accused of growing medical marijuana.Mathew Young was charged with cultivation after Pasco County deputies said they found plants in his home.Young said a Jacksonville attorney gave him paperwork and false information that using medical marijuana was allowed."I really to this day don't believe I did anything wrong," Young said.He said the cannabis gave him relief from a slew of medical problems he's had since returning from combat."It wasn't until I tried cannabis that everything turned around," Young said. "I could start functioning and start having a day.

An initial toxicology report for Sandra Bland, the woman who died in jail in Waller County, Tex., on July 13, showed that she had marijuana in her system after her death, but the document does not offer an accurate reading of just how much was circulating in her blood when she died.

When a death is suspicious, sudden or unexpected, toxicology reports are not uncommon.

At a meeting of the CLEAR Executive Committee held over the weekend of 18th/19th July 2015, Peter Reynolds tendered his resignation as leader.  He was first elected as leader in February 2011, won a confidence vote in April 2012 and was re-elected unopposed in February 2014.

Roland-Gyallay-Pap has been appointed acting leader and preparations will now begin for a leadership election.

Roland Gyallay-Pap said:

"I would like to extend a big thank you to Peter for the tireless work he has put in over the past four years. It is through his professionalism and tenacity that CLEAR is where it is now.

The amount of THC in Sandra Bland's system was negligible, and equal to placebo, according to neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart, who has spent nearly 20 years researching the neurophysiological, psychological and behavioral effects of marijuana.

"Of course, the scientific evidence almost never supports these fantastic distractions," Dr. Hart said. "Yet, the 'drug-crazed black person' myth continues to be revitalized decade after decade by racists masquerading as public servants."

"I find this line of reasoning insulting and offensive," Dr. Hart said. "It seeks to misuse the science of behavioral pharmacology to excuse reprehensible acts perpetrated by the state or state proxies."

The Denver Police Department is hardly seen as a booster of legal marijuana.

The DPD's official policy is to enforce laws in the city and the state, and the department has done so in a manner some critics see as heavy-handed.