Customers waited for the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary to open in Salem, on June 24.

The executive director of the state’s first and only medical marijuana dispensary said this week that in just two months of operation, it provided cannabis to 1,500 patients — the first measure of consumer demand for the product in Massachusetts.

That dispensary, Alternative Therapies Group in Salem,was granted permission by state regulators on Wednesday to expand its offerings, receiving permission to fill orders for first-time products such as marijuana oils and baked goods, which many patients prefer over smoking marijuana.

After 17 months, Dr. Suzanne Sisley is about to get the marijuana she needs to start a federally approved clinical study into whether marijuana helps veterans with PTSD.

She proposed this research five years ago, and has been herding bureaucratic turtles ever since. She’ll do the study in Arizona even though none of the state’s universities wanted to work with her on the fully funded study into one of the hottest topics around.

There is a list of reasons why vets are still waiting for answers.

One is the marijuana monopoly the feds built with your tax money.

Ohio's proposal to legalize recreational and medical marijuana is being met with opposition from residents who generally support legalizing pot. iStockphoto hide caption

Yellow Springs is a small college town in Ohio that has more than one head shop and a lot of tie-dye and hemp.

Many would consider it ground zero for likely supporters of the referendum on the ballot this November that could make Ohio the fifth state to legalize recreational and medical marijuana.

But the proposal is drawing some unusual opposition — and it's coming from residents who generally support legalizing marijuana.

Among the inivestors in the for-profit marijuana-legalization plan are legendary basketball player Oscar Robertson, left; entertainer Nick Lachey, center; and two great-great-grandnephews of President William Howard Taft.

There is a doctor, a developer, an NBA legend, a fashion designer, a knight, an ex-boy-band member, a professional football player and two relatives of a U.S. president.

Despite their widely varied backgrounds, investors in the for-profit ResponsibleOhio marijuana-legalization plan have something in common: They all want to make money, and lots of it.

Not too much…and that’s greatly to its credit! The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP, pronounced “wissip”), which is the official think tank for Washington’s state legislature in Olympia, has been charged with comprehensively assessing the costs and benefits of marijuana legalization for Washington’s citizens. The initiative that legalized recreational marijuana back in 2012, I-502, explicitly requires reports from WSIPP in 2015, 2017, 2022, and 2032. It published the first of those reports (authored by Senior Research Associate Adam Darnell) yesterday.

“My main goal is to get out of El Paso because I want to live,” Anderson said.

Anderson has stage three cervical cancer. She has gone through chemotherapy and radiation, spending months on end in the hospital. She tried CBD oils while on chemotherapy and said there is a noticeable difference.

“Chemo that was a doozy for me but the radiation is what really got me,” Anderson said. “I cannot see how people do it without it. I'm in all honesty if I didn't have it when I was doing the chemo I would not have made it.”

The National Cancer Institute recently released its report on medical marijuana. The overview of their conclusion is, THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) caused a 45 percent reduction in bladder cancer, remission in breast and liver cancer and more.

They have determined that there is no lethal dose of marijuana. And addictive potential is considerably lower than any other medicine available.

Among their findings, they have found that cannabis is not associated with adverse pulmonary function and does not cause lung cancer or any aerodigestive tract cancers. Cannabis does not cause other types of cancer either.

Cannabis, marijuana, pot, weed, ganja, Mary Jane, doobage. Whatever you call it, it has taken center stage in the world of investment. It’s getting the 15 minutes of fame it rightfully deserves, and it’s getting it right now. Traditionally, whenever anyone mentioned the words “cannabis” and “entrepreneur” together in one sentence, it meant one thing: drug dealer. That’s changing very quickly — and technology will play a huge role in the industry’s future legitimacy.

Another name was added to the list of Republican presidential candidates against legal marijuana after Ohio Governor John Kasich called it a terrible idea. Governor Kasich joined a group of unlikely candidates who are desperately trying to stay in the running.

These remarks come only a few weeks after Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire overwhelmingly supported the belief that states should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference. More than 60% of GOP voters in Iowa and New Hampshire said that states should be able to set their own marijuana laws.

The survey was conducted by Public Policy Polling after GOP candidates, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio stepped up their anti-marijuana rhetoric in recent weeks.

There’s been a lot of buzz about pot and wine recently. It’s hard to separate the toga party contingent’s thirst for a potion into which two psychoactive substances have been crammed, from the more sober, scholarly consideration of the 3,700+ year history of fortifying wine with cannabis. And the allegedly potent healing powers of cannabis-wine are almost always overlooked, advocates complain.

Come on. Isn’t pot-wine just an elevated partying tool? Or can it actually help people who suffer from various maladies? Also – is it any good? And where can we get it?