I have met Steve DeAngelo on several occasions. The first was at the 2012 Students for Sensible Drug Policy in Denver, Colorado. Steve had just walked off stage from giving a keynote speech, and since The Weed Blog booth was right by the auditorium, he walked right past Jay Smoker and I. We flagged him down, told him how big of fans we were of his work, and had a long conversation about the future of cannabis. It was a very timely conversation, because later that year Colorado and Washington voted to legalize recreational cannabis, which was something that we talked about that day, about eight months before Election Day 2012.

As the legal marijuana industry expands throughout the United States, the industry is in dire need of professional branding.

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.

Therefore, I’ve put together four tips that you should apply to your cannabis business:

As more states consider legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use, further evidence to support the much-debated medical merits of cannabis has surfaced. Promising preclinical studies that suggest that marijuana may be able to reduce and even kill cancerous cells have once again surfaced—and this time they’re gaining support from the federal government.

While the purveyors of e-cigarettes talk up the technology as a harmless substitute to traditional smoking, there’s a fast-mounting body of research saying that’s not the whole story. Not only are some e-cigarette substances even more dangerous than tobacco, but there’s increasing evidence that vaping encourages people to take up smoking.

He thinks it's time to start locking up the real criminals.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders isn't terribly impressed with a new Department of Justice pledge to get serious about white-collar crime.

After years of shrugging off criminal prosecutions for Wall Street activity that fueled the 2008 financial crisis, the Department of Justice said Thursday that it will more aggressively target white-collar crime going forward. In a memo, the DOJ said it would now seek to hold both corporations and individual employees accountable for misdeeds.

 It's about time, according to Sanders.

The marijuana advocacy group ResponsibleOhio has made headlines this week over a debate including the organization’s latest spokesperson.

Buddie, a green-muscled marijuana mascot, is serving as a spokesperson for ResponsibleOhio on college campuses across the state, motivating students to vote yes on ResponsibleOhio’s project.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY – U.S. Border Patrol agents confiscated nearly 2,000 pounds of marijuana in three seizures early Friday morning, a more than $1.5 million worth of marijuana bust.

Early Friday, agents assigned to the Brownsville Station were advised of possible illegal activity on the eastside of Brownsville, CBP says. As the agents reached the area, they saw a white SUV driving north from the Rio Grande.

Border Patrol agents say the alleged marijuana driver noticed the agents and decided to make a U-turn, headed back to the river. The vehicle was then submerged in water. CBP says the driver swam back to Mexico, abandoning more than 1,100 pounds of marijuana.

Many believe that molly is pure MDMA – the main ingredient in ecstasy – but it is frequently a mixture of chemicals that recreate the effects of MDMA. Designer drugs – synthetic drugs designed to mimic the effects other drugs – appear to be the fastest-emerging drug problem in the US.

Author:  Neal Catalano, North Bay Recovery Center Blogger

Workers tend the cannabis crop at Minnesota Medical Solutions manufacturing facility in May. (Star Tribune photo by Glen Stubbe.)

Minnesota’s fledgling medical marijuana program is one of the least-used in the nation, after two months in business.

As of Friday, 460 patients were registered with the Health Department’s Office of Medical Cannabis and could legally buy marijuana in Minnesota. Those numbers have been inching steadily upward and Michelle Larson, head of the OMC, expects the expansion to continue.

A North Texas cannabis company will soon debut its first cafe, with hemp-infused drinks and snacks. 

The AmeriCanna Café is a subsidiary of the publicly-traded Dallas-based North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc (USMJ). It's expected to open in Frisco by the end of the year, CEO Steven Rash said. 

"We want it to be like Starbucks of cannabis," he said. 

The drinks and snacks don't contain marijuana — the popular breed of cannabis consumed for its intoxicating THC. That's illegal in Texas. Instead they use hemp, the legal and less edgy cannabis plant. But that could change someday, said Rash, 67.