Supporters of the marijuana industry should be celebrating this week’s passage of eight state ballot measures to permit its use by adults. That promises to triple the industry’s size in coming years. 

But harshing their buzz are several key allies of President-elect Donald Trump, such as his running mate Mike Pence, who are skeptical about the benefits of marijuana legalization.

Not surprisingly, many in the cannabis industry had expected Democrat Hillary Clinton to cruise to victory and were stunned when it didn’t happen. Now, they’re awaiting signals of how Trump will approach cannabis, even as the industry is set to expand significantly.

With each election cycle, marijuana is legalized in another batch of states. On Tuesday, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada legalized recreational marijuana, while Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota approved marijuana for medicinal use. As legal weed becomes commonplace, it is the duty of cannabis advocates to look to the next battles.

The FDA is going to end up Chief Regulator of all things cannabis. Take a deep breath, feel the conflict, move through it. You’ll be OK. Now, let’s talk about when and how this will happen, and take notice that it has already started; just because you didn’t see it happening doesn’t mean it isn’t. Maybe it’s all for the better, we’ll see.

Innovative Industrial Properties could help investors grab a slice of real estate used for the growing of legal marijuana crops.

A newly formed California real estate company has filed paperwork for an IPO that would make it the first marijuana business publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Innovative Industrial Properties (IPP), formed in June 2016, operates in an area that could provide the best place to consider for investors interested in getting a piece of the growing marijuana industry: real estate.

The year of 2016 may go down as a watershed for weed, the election when legalization shifted from being an experiment in the American West to something primed for the mainstream.

Nine states voted on marijuana-related measures—four related to medical marijuana and five to recreational—and as of late Tuesday evening, seven of them passed. One failed and one remained pending. The upshot is that more than half of the states in the U.S. now have comprehensive medical marijuana laws and roughly one fifth of the population lives in a place where adults 21 and older can legally consume weed for fun.

A state advisory board that makes recommendations to the Health Department on New Mexico’s rapidly expanding Medical Cannabis Program voted 5-1 Friday in favor of adding “opiate use disorder” to the list of conditions that qualify, a move one health professional said could transform the state’s landscape of addiction.

If state Health Secretary-designate Lynn Gallagher adopts the new recommendations — she has the final word — thousands more New Mexicans will become eligible for the already exploding medical marijuana program. Officials say it has grown over the past year by 76 percent, to nearly 33,000 patients from 18,600.

Former Live Nation Chairman Michael Cohl and legendary Hollywood insider Shep Gordon are negotiating to back a new cannabis media property called Civilized Worldwide, sources tell Media Ink.

Derek Riedle, chief executive of Civilized Worldwide, said it raised $1.5 million a year ago in seed capital and has about a dozen employees fast at work producing a digital magazine called Civilized.Life.

The company later this month will close a Series A round of funding that raised $3 million, he said.

Will Donald Trump turn over a new leaf for the cannabis industry?

Arguably the oddest election of our times is now in the books. The voters have spoken, and the 45th president of the United States will be Donald Trump. This election was bound to be historic no matter who won, but it'll now be remembered as the point in history where Trump becomes the first person without any prior political or military background to ascend to the Oval Office.

Medical marijuana advocates saw big returns Tuesday night and Wednesday morning for ballot initiative 182, which would greatly expand the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday morning that the measure would pass. 

As of 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, voters favored the measure 238,602-183,923, with 422,525 ballots counted. The initiative was passing 56-43 percent at that time. 

The initiative got a boost from larger counties that reported partial results early. Missoula, Gallatin and Lewis and Clark counties showed strong leads for the initiative. 

Issue 6, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, has been passed by Arkansas voters.

Family Council President Jerry Cox released the following statement after amendment passed:

This fight is not over. The battle now shifts to the Arkansas Legislature.