Players in the NBA want the league to remove marijuana from its list of banned substances if the player has a prescription.

Marijuana is probably more controversial than ever with more states legalizing it for medical purposes and some states outright legalizing it for recreational purposes as well.

The subject of marijuana comes up frequently in sports leagues, especially in the NBA and NFL. The NFL has strict rules against using it and getting caught with it puts players in a program that could eventually end up in total suspension.

FARMINGTON, Maine — A pair of University of Maine at Farmington professors plan to study marijuana to find strains that will help patients suffering from various ailments, but have little use for those just looking to get high.

BISMARCK -- Former MHA Nation Tribal Chairman Tex Hall has joined a company focused on producing marijuana on reservations.

Native American Organics LLC will help tribes who want to enter the marijuana products industry set up legal growing and distribution systems. The company is a partnership between Hall's Red Tipped Arrow LLC and Wright Family Organics LLC, a California-based medical marijuana research and operations company.

The company will work on regulation and compliance issues with tribes located in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal, helping to break down barriers to entry. It will help tribes make law governing the industry on their reservations.

FORT LUPTON, Colo. (AP) — The newly legal hemp industry is entering its second growing season with some big questions for producers experimenting with marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin.

The federal government has allowed limited imports of hemp seed — in Colorado's case, this month — for research and development purposes. Companies trying to create a U.S. hemp industry are seeking investors not only for unproven products but for a plant that is still classified under the federal Controlled Substances Act with marijuana and thus cannot be patented.

As a result, it's too soon to tell whether hemp will become a boon for farmers or stay in mostly boutique products that use imported hemp.

CHICAGO -- In any business, personal relationships often are the key. In the marijuana business, that could be even truer, especially when it comes to banking needs.

Marijuana largely is an all-cash business. Banks are skittish because growing and selling marijuana still is illegal under federal law, which classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug. But some store owners and others in the marijuana business who have had pre-existing relationships, especially at small community institutions, have been able to convince bankers to work with them, said Chris Walsh, managing editor of Marijuana Business Daily, which sponsored the Marijuana Business Conference and Expo here May 19-21.

Indiana passed a Religious Freedom Act, which critics say allows discrimination of gay people. However, there is another unintended side effect, where The First Church of Cannabis is now allowed to smoke marijuana and have tax exempt status, even though weed is not legal in the state. Ben Mankiewicz (What The Flick?), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show), and Ana Kasparian (The Point) hosts of The Young Turks discuss.

“Indiana’s marijuana-smoking church has been incorporated as a tax-exempt religious organization by the Internal Revenue Service according to the church’s founder.

Companies have until June 5 to file applications with the state’s health department for one of five licenses to dispense medical marijuana

Erik Holling spent more than 10 years helping turn a family business into a global information-technology company with a staff of 3,500 people in more than 190 countries.

Now he is aiming to be at the forefront of a new industry for New York state: medical marijuana.

Mr. Holling, who earlier in his career worked in medical research and health care, is now president of Valley Agriceuticals, a Purchase-based health-care company vying for one of five licenses to grow and distribute medical marijuana in New York.

Pay taxes and/or die

California authorities are notoriously creative when it comes to wringing as much tax revenue as possible out of the state's businesses, yet are leaving real money on the table because of their failure to come up with a simple way for medical marijuana dispensaries to pay their tab.

Voters legalized this business 19 years ago with the passage of Proposition 215. But an uncertain federal legal status has complicated the matter since then. The state only collects a small percentage of the sales-and-use taxes these businesses owe, although a new program is attempting to address the imbalance.

Spinal cord injuries can result in some of the most damaging and unbearable side effects possible. Injuries in this area of the body often result in a change, either temporary or permanent to normal motor or sensory function.

A fragile, spaghetti-like plethora of nerves surround the spinal cord, all of which are vital to the human body functioning regularly. When these nerves are compromised, pain, spasticity, depression and many other side effects often occur, leaving the victim in constant need for medical treatment.

Right now it’s impossible to accurately enforce stoned driving laws, because there is no roadside test that can determine whether a driver is actually high.

Which is why many of the people checking out the Cannabix Technologies booth at the Marijuana Investor Summit in Denver last month were thrilled. Here, finally, in a hotel ballroom littered with men in suits hawking useless apps and grow-house accessories, was a product with real potential: a marijuana breathalyzer.