As Washington on Sunday marks the third year of legal recreational marijuana, monthly sales have grown from about $3 million to more than $57 million in November.

Nov. 25 – the day before Thanksgiving – was a record day at the state’s 188 recreational pot stores.

That day, some $3.5 million worth of marijuana and marijuana-infused products were sold, according to the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, which tracks sales and tax collections. That’s almost $500,000 more than any previous day’s sales, and about $1 million higher than the daily sales average for the last three months.

Whether that means more people were relaxed for a holiday dinner with family or more out-of-state guests were testing out the novelty of buying legal marijuana isn’t clear.

That, combined with the stories from people suffering from constant pain, ultimately outweighed the medical community’s concerns that there’s not enough evidence to use medical marijuana to treat pain.

Minnesota legislators in 2014 approved using products of the marijuana plant for nine specific health issues, but left the decision about whether intractable pain – severe pain that otherwise can not be treated – up to the health commissioner.

Bad news for cannabis users, the new marijuana breathalyzer may be available as soon as next year for clinical trials according to Cannabis Culture on Saturday. It looks like a modern invention may make it easier for police to determine if a driver is marijuana impaired on the spot.

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images

COLUMBIA — When Sheila Dundon began chemotherapy treatments to combat breast cancer in 2007, she experienced all the side effects she'd seen in patients as a registered nurse. She felt the shooting pains, the pale-in-the-face nausea, the unwillingness to get out of bed each morning.

One symptom she didn't expect was fuzzy-headedness, the sense that her brain was trapped in an egg beater. Her psychiatrist pointed out that all those anti-depressants she was taking might have led to a mental condition called serotonin syndrome.

Off the record, he told her that marijuana could help. Asked how she got it in a state where it’s still criminalized, Dundon called it a “gift from God.”

acific Beach medical marijuana dispensary has been hit with a $1.8-million penalty for operating outside of San Diego's zoning regulations, the largest fine against a dispensary in city history.

That more than doubles the total amount of dispensary-related judgments the city has collected to date.

On Nov. 20, San Diego County Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor ruled against SoCal Holistic Health Inc. and the company's president, Ryan Murphy. Besides the penalty for operating illegally, Taylor also issued a permanent injunction against the dispensary and its president, prohibiting them from having a dispensary anywhere within city limits.

CHICAGO– Almost two years after Illinois chose medical cannabis users should not be forbidden from having guns, a number of clients received letters from state police informing them their firearms cards were being revoked.

Although the company firmly insists the letters were sent out to just four people prior to the error was fixed, some cannabis fans state the mistake symbolizes an underlying ambivalence about medical marijuana in the 23 states where it’s now legal.

For example, a checklist for firearm owners on the Illinois State Police website includes this demand: “I am not a medical marijuana client registry card holder.” That, too, was an error that a supplier is now working to get rid of from the site, ISP representative Matt Boerwinkle said.

Cannabis treatment is helpful for some diseases. Some countries legally approved use of marijuana.

3 Surprising Industries That Would Benefit if Marijuana Was Legalized

When it comes to fast-growing industries, there may be none with better growth prospects than marijuana. Based on some estimates, legalizing marijuana across the country could lead to a $35 billion market. Separately, NerdWallet has suggested that legalizing marijuana would generate around $3.1 billion in annual tax revenue for states and potentially the federal government.

Hieb said that although the newspaper publishers group is looking for legal clarity on the issue, she's advising members not to run marijuana ads if they use the postal service for some delivery, fearing USPS could "seize all papers".

Some potentially bad news for OR newspapers that accepts ads from local marijuana dispensaries.

OR legalized medical marijuana use in 1998 and recreational use in 2014, that law took effect in July and the state is still working through a number of problems. But that law has become somewhat obsolete, as Congress stripped the U.S. Department of Justice, which includes the DEA, of its power to interfere in states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Ellensburg’s two recreational marijuana shops — Cannabis Central and The Green Shelf — could both begin selling medical-grade marijuana on July 1, 2016.

The Liquor and Cannabis Board approved both shops for medical endorsements, which would allow them to sell higher-grade marijuana products to patients when the recreational and medical markets merge on July 1.

Rob Hendrix, who owns Cannabis Central, said it is the responsibility of recreational shops to step up and offer medical marijuana, especially in Kittitas County where there are so few medical dispensaries.

Paul Stanford first tried cannabis when he was just 11-years-old. The year was 1971 and he was in his babysitter’s basement in Dallas, Texas. The offending “pusher” was the babysitter’s son, a 26-year-old who had just returned home from serving in the Vietnam War. Stanford didn’t start using cannabis regularly until he was 13 and able to scrape together $110 to buy his first pound. His intent at the time was to make a little extra money while stocking his own stash. He lost money on that first buy but a budding infatuation for the cannabis plant was sparked inside him. At 17 he moved to North Carolina and began selling cannabis and turning a profit.