About 3,000 of some 3,700 people who have applied for cards allowing them to buy medical marijuana have been approved by the state of Illinois.

That's according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which updates the figures on the first Wednesday of each month, the Belleville News-Democrat reports.

The number of residents applying and receiving the cards in Illinois grew slowly in August, as legal medical cannabis cultivation centers push to have the medicine in dispensaries by the state's fall deadline, the newspaper reports.

TOPEKA (KSNT) — A nationwide argument between the veterans administration and groups which represent the rights of veterans emerged in Topeka Tuesday.

That issue is whether veterans should be denied prescription medications because they use marijuana for physical or emotional pain even in states which allow medical marijuana use.

We found out about it when a Vietnam veteran contacted KSNT News.

“I went in to get a refill on my pain medication and they refused to let me have it, because I have marijuana in my blood,” Gary Dixon, Vietnam veteran.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado is waiving some taxes on recreational marijuana on Sept. 16. A quirk in state law is forcing the one-day tax holiday. Here are some things to know about why Colorado is tapping the brakes on recreational pot taxes:

BLAME (OR THANK) THE CONSTITUTION

Colorado has complicated tax-and-spending restrictions in its state constitution. The restrictions require new taxes to win voter approval and those new taxes to be waived and refunded to voters if overall tax collections exceed state projections.

WHY SEPT. 16

When Chavie Lieber, a writer in New York, was traveling over a recent weekend, she and her husband lent their apartment to a friend’s brother. Upon return, “There were three fat joints rolled for us on the coffee table,” Lieber told me, “with a scribbled note that read: ‘Thanks for letting us stay.’ ”

After moving to a new home in Connecticut, Liza, a marketing executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity, received a small satchel of weed as a housewarming gift from friends, making for “a really mellow” evening in her new home. “I will always appreciate a bottle of wine, but weed is king,” Liza said. “It’s expensive, hard to get, and weed these days is so customized, meaning someone bought Bubba Kush versus Purple Haze, for instance, keeping your tastes in mind.”

Cannabis aka marijuana prohibition is entering its 78th year in the United States. But attitudes toward the plant are changing. Compared to 1968 when only 12% of the population supported legalizing marijuana, today the majority supports legalization. 

Earlier this year I was very surprised to read that spa and wellness authority Spa Finder had listed "Cannabis: New spa and wellness connections" as their number two trend for 2015. 

To gain insight on what is causing the momentum, I decided to talk to Sandra Hinchliffe, author of The Cannabis Spa at Home. How to Make Marijuana-Infused Lotions, Massage Oils, Ointments, Bath Salts, Spa Nosh, and More.

Working in the Cannabis Industry, one universal truth reigns above all others: Marijuana growers are not the most humble bunch.

Anyone who grows marijuana, grows the best marijuana. I’ve met cultivators with root rot and sickly hydroponic plants claiming to yield four lbs./light. I’ve also met cultivators that set their HPS lights one inch above their canopy and claim to get three lbs./light. And I’ve met people who pump more than 3,000 PPMs of nutrients into their feed reservoirs and claim to get two lbs./light.

Claims such as these, as well as my background in communications and workforce development in the building trades, encouraged me to pursue hiring industry virgins with a real eagerness to learn.

If you are reading this, you are possibly interested in either becoming a grower of cannabis (sometimes also referred to as a producers or cultivators) or you are already profiting from cannabis production. With the constantly changing political and legal environments surrounding medical marijuana, here are some legal issues to keep in mind as you consider expanding your business through cannabis cultivation.

First and foremost, the federal government treats cannabis as a Schedule I substance, which makes cultivating, distributing or possessing it illegal. A Schedule I substance is one defined as having no demonstrated medical benefit and being highly addictive, such as LSD and Heroin. So there is no coherent federal policy governing or regulating cannabis producers.

Hillary Clinton says she has never smoked pot, not even as a bell-bottom-wearing undergraduate in the 1960s. Her husband’s administration went nuclear in the War on Drugs. During the 2008 campaign, she publicly opposed marijuana legalization.

But it’s now seven years later, and the marijuana industry isn’t selling baggies and answering beepers. It’s a $2.7 billion business—the fastest-growing in the United States—and one that operates without any legal sanction in four states, is decriminalized in 16 others, and is permitted for medical use in a few more.

Winner of High Times Stash Award Grow Green with G8LED Technology

America’s legal cannabis industry will belong to a minority of Americans with a large appetite for risk. The rest of us will watch from the sidelines.

That’s the verdict from massive financial firm Morgan Stanley, which released the results of a poll about investing in marijuana.

Even if marijuana were legalized in California, and throughout the U.S., about 69 percent of Americans would not invest. The average cannabis investor is going to be 65 and older, Democrat and relatively rare.

Morgan Stanley polled 1,003 “high net worth” investors age 25 to 75 online.

As a part of its marijuana legalization initiative passed in 2012, I-502, Washington state is required to issue periodic reports on how its ‘experiment’ with cannabis is going.