e first time Brian Rogers took a bong hit at a party with his Havre de Grace High School friends, he said marijuana had no effect on him.

Now Rogers co-owns a multimillion-dollar marijuana company in Colorado at the center of the CNN docu-series, "High Profits," and he's no longer ambivalent.

"It's changed my life," the 34-year-old Harford County native said.

While recreational marijuana is illegal in 46 states — including Maryland — Colorado has been at the forefront of the legalization movement. And Rogers has been at the forefront of capitalizing on it.

Californians will legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for adult use in the 2016 general election, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom told Real Time with Bill Maher Friday.

The statement amounts one of to the most strident predictions — from one of the world’s highest ranking politicians — about the success of such an initiative.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday, Aug. 7, and during a question and answer segment said:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Kush Bottles (www.kushbottles.com), North America's premier supplier of customizable child-resistant packaging solutions and accessories for the legal cannabis industry, announced today that the company was named to the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Companies in America.

Kush Bottles was ranked #774, which is in the top 20% of all companies on the list.  

In being named to the 34th annual Inc. 5000 list, Kush Bottles joins an elite group of companies over the years, including Microsoft, GoPro,Yelp, Domino's Pizza, Zillow, Timberland, Vizio, Intuit, Chobani, Oracle, and Zappos.

If you're going to wage war on drugs, you need to be outfitted like a warrior.

That seems to be the rationale behind hundreds of police department requests for armored trucks submitted to the Pentagon between 2012 and 2014. The requests, unearthed in a FOIA request by Mother Jones magazine, shed light on how the war on drugs has directly contributed to the militarization of local police forces in recent years.

Cannabis is a kind of flowering plant which is commonly known as Marijuana. The American economy is certainly not what it was a decade ago. The global economic meltdown of 2008 coupled with numerous other factors in the global economic arena, for instance, the real estate crisis has led to a slump in the economy. So this struggling economy of the United States of America can definitely use a boost. Quite surprisingly, this much-needed boost could come in the form of legalizing Cannabis.

In a highly charged meeting Tuesday, Pitkin County commissioners told the owners of High Valley Farms, a marijuana grow facility that debuted last year, that its license is in serious peril because of its chronic stench.

The meeting was the latest in a series of county commissioner work sessions over the smell wafting from High Valley Farms, located in the Basalt area. And each time, Jordan Lewis, co-owner of the greenhouses, has assured commissioners and neighbors the stench will be eradicated. The neighbors also have been making repeated claims that the odor hasn’t gone away, continually and negatively impacting their lifestyle.

Scientific Botanical Leasing, a leader in engineering and development of cultivation and related manufacturing facilities, announced that it has finalized its first round funding totaling $800,000, and has opened its Series 2015B offering to new investors ($25,000 minimum, $1.5 million maximum offering, accredited investors only, 506C). The Series 2015B offers commercial real estate secured Notes, which can be purchased by IRA, Qualified Plan and other investors that meet the offering requirements.

Global Industrial Hemp Bioscience Company Announces Clinical Trials at Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands