No your not a white collar criminal, but what many founders do not know is that they may have violated federal and state securities laws through their efforts to raise capital.

Most founders obtain initial financing for their startups by tapping their savings, incurring debt, asking their friends and family for money and approaching professional investors.

Here’s the issue: Every offering of securities has to be either (1) registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or (2) qualify under one of the applicable exemptions from registration.

Officials determined that marijuana intoxication, from cookies, was the chief contributing factor to the man’s death. (Photo: Getty Images)

A teenager in Colorado died after consuming an entire marijuana cookie that contained 6 servings of marijuana’s active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), according to a new report.

Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier taken prisoner by the Taliban before before being released and charged with desertion, was spotted at a California marijuana farm Tuesday morning during a police raid, according to local reports.

Calling him an “unexpected visitor,” The Anderson Valley Advertiser reported Bergdahl was visiting old friends in Mendocino County when authorities raided the marijuana farm.

U.S. Army via Getty Images

Sheriff Tom Allman confirmed to the Advertiser that Bergdahl was in fact present when the drug task force conducted a raid. He, however, added that Bergdahl “readily produced his military ID,” but was “not involved” in the marijuana operation.

On Thursday, Gallup released a poll showing that 44 percent of Americans have said they've tried marijuana, the largest number the survey has ever recorded. This isn't too far off from what other polls have found (this Pew Research Center poll pegged the number at 49 percent), and given that people are being asked to admit to behavior that is illegal in most places, the true number is almost certainly higher. So we're past the point where most American adults have tried pot, which helps explain why support for legalization has also become a majority position.

Program eyed to train workers for medical cannabis facility

SCHENECTADY — A medical marijuana program could be coming to Schenectady County Community College this fall.

Fiorello Pharmaceuticals has pledged to provide $100,000 to SCCC if it is one of five contractors chosen by the state Health Department to provide marijuana to patients suffering from certain medical conditions.

The New York City-based company would open a facility in Glenville if it gets a license and is looking to launch a medical cannabis certificate program in Schenectady — the first in the nation, according to Fiorello — as part of a job-training partnership with the two-year college. The college may also help train developmentally disabled people to work at the facility.

Entrepreneurs are trying to boost sales by steering pot toward the Whole Foods crowd.

Upon entering Dixie Elixirs's headquarters in Denver, you're greeted by a big sign that reads: "The Future of Cannabis." Since its 2009 founding, Dixie has updated its image from a "pot soda" company to a gourmet THC edibles manufacturer whose carbonated drinks and snacks, containing ingredients like pepita and sea salt, look like they could be found on a shelf at Whole Foods. 

It's just one example of how marijuana businesses are rebranding the plant to distance pot from its hippie-stoner-outlaw culture and show off its appeal to a health-conscious, kale chip-eating crowd.

Somebody once said that advertising is not necessary, unless you want to make money.

Like Washington and Colorado, Oregon will restrict advertising options for marijuana businesses. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) is currently writing advertising rules for Oregon’s recreational marijuana program. The new rules may be similar to the OLCC’s advertising regulations for liquor; or, they may be more like tobacco regulations, another smokable product. Draft rules should issue in late September.

Sandra Bland was high on marijuana — while she was incarcerated in the Texas jail where she eventually died — according to Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis. Mathis reportedly said in a text message to an attorney representing the Bland family that “[l]ooking at the autopsy results and toxicology, it appears she swallowed a large quantity of marijuana or smoked it in the jail.”

If true, this allegation suggests that security in this jail facility is extraordinarily lax. How does marijuana make its way to an incarcerated individual in the first place? And how does that individual manage to smoke or eat a “large quantity” of it without jail officials noticing?

Some parents of severely ill children say that prescription drugs expose their kids to dangerous side effects. Some want to try medical marijuana, and they seek wider access to the drug in Michigan.