With 230 plus booths spread across two large exhibit halls in the belly of the Rio Casino last week the thousands of attendees to the fourth annual Marijuana Business Conference and Expo had a lot to take in. Traditional cannabis-associated products such as vaporizers and glass art made way for the wide array of businesses such as extract machines and plug-and-play grow systems in a realm keynote speaker Ralph Nader called a new “subeconomy.”

Last month, close to 1000 advocates, service providers, community leaders, researchers and government representatives met in Kuala Lumpur for the 24th International Harm Reduction conference. This year, the conference took place in Asia to inspire the region to consider drug policies that offer alternatives to the failed goal of Drug Free Asia by 2015 set by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

HelloMD is a pioneering digital healthcare platform that might set a precedent for the medical cannabis industry.

In California, where brick and mortar cannabis dispensaries have been permitted to sell pot since 1996, its assumed ubiquity has sewn a fabulist notion that the state is an idyllic playground for weed smokers.

Carlos and I are bombing around San Francisco in his 1999 Maxima, delivering marijuana to people who have ordered it from Eaze, a company that many have called the "Uber of cannabis." I had forgotten how fast 25-year-old guys like to drive.

But this is good, because Eaze boldly promises customers, all of whom must have medical marijuana cards, that they will receive their weed in 15 minutes or less.

Our first delivery of the afternoon, about $200 worth of sweet-looking bud, goes to a woman who lives in the Mission. She comes out to the sidewalk to meet us. She looks as if she's in her early 30s, is in the retail wine business, and does not want to give her name.

Analysis by Boulder firm shows recreational sales up 81 percent

Preliminary data released from Boulder data analysis firm BDS Analytics has confirmed what tax revenues have already shown: Coloradans love legal pot. 

All told, dispensary sales in the state were $290 million for the quarter, a 53 percent increase over last year's $190 million quarterly sales.

Year to date, dispensary sales are about $740 million.

"Marijuana is going to be a $1 billion business in Colorado this year, or very damn close," said Roy Bingham, founder and CEO of BDS. "It's the fastest growing industry in America, I would say."

A full consumer report, the first of its kind, is due out near the end of the year.

"I look on the national scene and think, wow, of all things to be fighting over and battling over."

Supporters of marijuana legalization may have an unlikely ally: Sarah Palin.

Breaking with many members of her party who oppose legalizing marijuana, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee on Thursday said it is "no big deal" and argued that it should not be a controversial issue.

"I look on the national scene and think, wow, of all things to be fighting over and battling over, especially when it comes to medical marijuana. I think, hmm, this is just not my baby," Palin told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

What will come after marijuana legalization? Increasingly, drug policy experts and skeptics of legalization worry that it will be a giant industry — one rife with the greed and excesses that led companies to market deadly products like tobacco that cause hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. And while marijuana is not deadly, experts are concerned that overpromoting and overmarketing pot's use could lead to more dependence on the drug.

On a warm September evening, about 70 women gather at The Peg House, a famed roadside burger joint on Northern California’s Highway 101. They arrive in a stream of 4x4 trucks and carpools of Subarus; some have driven hours from remote hillside homesteads. At the state park across the road, there’s plenty of room to pitch tents under the redwoods.

The 420 Games - the brainchild of entrepreneur Jim McAlpine - is a series of events in legalized states that includes some form of athletic challenge or race. By linking cannabis use with athleticism, McAlpine is challenging cultural stereotypes about stoners as unmotivated individuals.

"The 420 Games does not advocate that everyone should use cannabis," says McAlpine. "We are focused on teaching those who choose to do so how to do so in a healthy and responsible manner [...] The 420 Games participants are not 'stoners'. While some of us use cannabis, some of us do not use it at all." 

In 2016 an amazing new tourist attraction fully dedicated to cannabis will open its doors in the US state of Colorado. Caution! After reading this article, you might want to book a trip to the Colorado Cannabis Ranch & Amphitheater.

The famous cannabis entrepreneur Christian Hageseth, founder of the Colorado Cannabis Ranch & Amphitheater, compares this attraction to a brewery or winery, but dedicated to legal cannabis. The Ranch will give a unique opportunity to explore an operational professional cannabis grow facility to learn more about the plant, how it can be cultivated indoors, and the medicines it provides.