The six nursery businesses that have applied to be Southwest Florida's medical marijuana dispensing organization are turning to prominent professionals in the Sunshine State and cultivation experts from Colorado who have experience in the pot-growing industry.

The state has been divided into five regions and only one license will be issued per region. Overall 28 applications were submitted from 24 nurseries. The six applicants for the region that includes Southwest Florida are based in LaBelle, Arcadia, Sarasota, Ruskin (two), and Homestead.

Hilary Bricken

A red herring is “something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.” The marijuana industry has more than its fair share of red herrings and the below 10 deserve a call out because of their prevalence and importance:

1. Federal enforcement memoranda mean the Feds are taking it easy on the marijuana industry. 

Jane co-founder Jeff Foster speaks with the media at the Cannabis Expo & Business Conference in June at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

When it arrives in New York, the medical marijuana industry will be an all-cash business. 

New York’s five companies licensed to grow and sell medical marijuana under the Compassionate Care Act must grapple with the security, safety, and legal challenges of dealing in cash because they can't keep it in banks like other businesses.

SEATTLE — Stephen Damgaard uses medical marijuana for nerve damage in his spine, eating a small brownie made with cannabutter each morning. The weed in the butter comes from one of Seattle's many medical dispensaries -- an untaxed and illegal medical pot shop that up until now has been tolerated by authorities. 

Novartis announced Friday morning it would spend more than $1 billion to purchase the remaining rights to multiple sclerosis drug Ofatumumab from drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). 

Novartis initially acquired the rights to the drug earlier this year for treating cancer, writes The New York Times. This transaction will help the pharmaceutical company continue development of the compound for treating relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and similar autoimmune diseases. 

Widely proscribed around the world for its recreational uses, cannabis is being used in a number of different therapeutic ways to bring relief for severe medical conditions. Products using cannabinoids, the active components of the cannabis plant, have been licensed for medical use. Sativex, for example, which contains an equal mixture of the cannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), is already licenced as a mouth spray for multiple sclerosis and in the US, dronabinol and nabilone are commercially available for treating cancer-related side effects.

By RX MARYJANE

I’ve been fortunate to meet Carter Baird on a several occasions and am happy to say that he is a Cannabis Patients Ally. Already impressed by his intellect, I was happy to hear about his exciting video-blog adventure as The Pot Scientist.

In this piece, he makes a logical and reasoned argument about why the Colorado Board of Health should have decided to include PTSD as a condition for medical marijuana: research! 

As Carter says, “It’s not like anyone’s reputation was on the line because they DO NOT have randomized, double-blind clinical trials for the other listed conditions already approved. They’re not the FDA and they should stop acting like it.”

As options for cancer patients become increasingly complicated, and expensive, the most influential source for U.S. oncology treatment guidelines will for the first time offer a tool to assess the costs versus benefits of available therapies.

As options for cancer patients become increasingly complicated, and expensive, the most influential source for U.S. oncology treatment guidelines will for the first time offer a tool to assess the costs versus benefits of available therapies.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) says its new tool will provide a clearer picture of the relative value of medication options, particularly in cases where a very expensive therapy does little to improve survival.