With medical marijuana slated to become legal in Ohio on Sept. 8, potential cannabis entrepreneurs are faced with two major challenges: growing an entire pot industry from the ground up, and avoiding being choked out by state bureaucrats.

Those challenges comprised the major theme of the Ohio Cannabis Association's public forum Wednesday night. The group serves as the first marijuana trade association in the state. It has been in the works since 2014, but only truly came into existence in April, said Brian Wright, the group's spokesperson.

Rosie Yagielo runs a marijuana business at the southern edge of a state where medical pot isn't available.

Based in a small office in Key Largo, HempStaff doesn't grow the drug or sell it.

Yet it could profit if voters in November approve an amendment to expand the legal uses of medical marijuana. HempStaff is one of 15,000 businesses nationwide that provide services and technology to marijuana growers and dispensaries.

They see Florida as an opportunity. The state's budding marijuana market could be one of the largest in the country within a matter of years if 60 percent of voters approve Amendment 2.

If you watched this year's NBA playoffs - as many, many millions of Americans did - you might've seen a 30-second spot for a performance hydroponics company called Black Magic. 

The spot - entitled "Growers" - praises the "perfection-seeking" tendencies of green-thumbs who operate "under the cover of darkness," represented by a range of attractive, plaid-and-hoodie clad, Doc-Marten-wearing actors tending plants under glowing purple LEDs. A voiceover intones:

0.32 grams.

That's how much marijuana is in the typical American joint, according to a rigorous statistical analysis recently published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence by drug policy researchers Greg Ridgeway of the University of Pennsylvania and Beau Kilmer of the Rand Corp.

The amount of weed in the typical joint is actually an important quantity for researchers and policymakers to know. Marijuana is often sold by the joint in both legal and illegal markets. If you want to know how much weed people are consuming — which is highly important for things such as tax projections and public health studies — you need to know how much weed is in those joints.

When three Colorado marijuana entrepreneurs made a presentation to 40 Silicon Valley investors last year, it was as though they were discussing something dirty.

“There was an uncomfortable chuckle in the room, kind of like you’re talking about porn,” says Fulton Connor, the Sand Hill Angels Inc. member who arranged the meeting. His fellow venture capitalists just couldn’t get past the fact that marijuana remains prohibited under federal law.

Contrary to stoner stereotypes, cannabis users are very interested in grown-up things like obtaining quality medical coverage, pursuing life insurance protections after they start families, or seeking “key man” coverage for their businesses.

More than two dozen former NFL players will take part in a new study of whether whole-plant cannabis is more effective than isolated compounds in treating and managing their pain, The Denver Post reported.

The study, led by Dutch researcher Dr. Arno Hazekamp in conjunction with cannabis-extract producer Constance Therapeutics and the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition, will be conducted in California, where marijuana is legal for medical use and soon could be for recreational purposes, too.

The legal pot business may be in its infancy, but it’s already created the marijuana equivalent of pre-grated cheese and instant noodles. Don’t feel like rolling a joint? Buy a pre-roll. Don’t want to smoke marijuana? Slurp it in a just-add-water soup mix, use a pod to brew it into a cup of coffee, or drop some salts into the bathtub and submerge yourself in it.

The Growing Divide is an online documentary project that uses photography and a series of 25 interviews with residents, marijuana growers, police officers and government officials to tell the story of the marijuana boom in the rural community of Hayfork, California.

With photographs by Talia Herman and Brian Gossman, and with support from California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Humboldt Area Foundation, the result is a multi-faceted look at the marijuana industry in the microcosm of a small, rural community. Read on for excerpts from this project, and view it in its entirety online at: www.thegrowingdivide.com.

With four months to go before the election, an initiative campaign to legalize marijuana for adults in California has a $5.5 million war chest.

Promoters of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, got a $2 million boost in donations this week from two key financial backers.

Sean Parker, who co-founded Napster and was Facebook’s first president, gave an additional $1.25 million, bringing his total contributions to $2.25 million.

The New Approach PAC, which is a legacy of Progressive insurance mogul and legalization activist Peter Lewis, gave an additional $750,000. The PAC has now contributed $1.5 million.