Smoking is clearly the popular way to consume marijuana, as demonstrated by the thousands of pounds of marijuana flower legally sold each week. A growing number of consumers seek a more discreet and portable experience that companies continue to develop — anything from coffees to breath sprays to candies.

However, when a suspected marijuana-infused product becomes evidence in a crime, there is no valid way for state labs to test it, making it difficult prove that it's actually marijuana.

When marijuana becomes legal in Oregon, Washington stores may make a big push to sell marijuana-infused products, because they won't be available right away on the other side of the river. 

The oversize check presented to the state on Wednesday by backers of a plan to legalize marijuana in Arizona.

Ray Stern

Backers of a marijuana-legalization plan in Arizona are outraged over an unsigned editorial in the Arizona Republic published August 21 that used an inaccurate tax-revenue figure to bolster its claim that campaign officials were lying.

New Times also noticed the error on Friday morning and left the Republic's editorial page editor, Phil Boas, a message about it. The Republic later issued a correction.  

After waiting in line for hours at a booth during a medical marijuana convention in San Francisco, Jeff Harrington needed only a two-minute consultation and a written recommendation to become a medical marijuana patient in California. He now can legally purchase and possess marijuana from any one of thousands of marijuana businesses in the state.

Across the country in Connecticut, an established physician-patient relationship is required before patients are deemed qualified for medical marijuana, and only licensed pharmacists can own and operate dispensaries.

Between these two extremes, a News21 investigation has found there are as many ways to deal with medical marijuana as there are states that have legalized it.

Back in July, medical marijuana advocates United for Care shipped over 100,000 petitions to Florida Supervisors of Elections offices for Supreme Court review. Once the Supervisor of Elections verifies that petitions are valid, the Supreme Court can then schedule a review so that the initiative can start to make its way to the ballot.

And the push is on.

As of Thursday, United for Care says that over 43,259 have been validated, according to their website counter. The group needs an additional 639,890 validated to get on the ballot, and roughly 28,154 to trigger the Supreme Court Review. 

Colorado has brought in more than $60 million dollars in tax revenue off of marijuana during 2015. Marijuana may be considered “blood money” to Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, but people here on planet earth see that as a partial solution to a problem faced by many states; a strained budget.

Marijuana has helped improve Colorado’s infrastructure and future. During the first six months, the state received $16.6 million for school construction projects. Too bad Governor Christie is only worried about improving his budget instead of New Jersey’s.

Numbers do not account for ancillary businesses

When photographer Lynn Johnson was working on this month’s National Geographic cover story on marijuana, she was surprised how addictive it became. Not the drug, mind you, but the controversial and convoluted medical world that legalization has spawned. So much so, that even after shooting on-and-off for six months for the magazine assignment, she couldn’t entirely let go of the story.

[Hear Johnson reveal what it was like to shoot the marijuana story in the video above.]

“I wasn’t prepared for the passion and depth of feeling that people associated with this plant,” said Johnson. She has continued photographing families with medically challenged children since finishing her assignment last December.

Lawmakers in Miami Beach have passed a new law that allows police to give a $100 citation to persons possessing under 20 grams of marijuana, instead of arresting and sending them to jail.

The Miami Beach Mayor mentioned: “We don’t want marijuana smoking on the streets. That’s still illegal. It’s illegal to distribute or sell any marijuana or anything like that. But if someone’s caught with under 20 grams, we don’t want to ruin their lives.”

Florida law states that possession of 20 grams or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor and punishable by up to one year in prison with fines up to $1,000.

SEATTLE — It’s an alarming trend — more people involved in deadly crashes are testing positive for marijuana.

“We have seen marijuana involvement in fatal crashes remain steady over the years, and then it just spiked in 2014,” said Dr. Staci Hoff, director of the Washington Transportation Safety Commission’s Data and Research department.

“It’s unfortunate that marijuana is playing a bigger role in deadly crashes in Washington,” said Wilma Comenat of MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

That’s why the organization, well known for their fight against drinking and driving, is now turning its attention to what they call drugging and driving.

“Your reflexes are slower … your reflexes are not 100%,” Comenat said.