In four years, the cannabis industry’s job growth has increased 161%, quickly beating predictions from other industries 10 years from now.

Leafly’s fifth annual cannabis jobs report showed the cannabis industry to support 321,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2021! An incredible number for an amazing and highly-deserving industry.

Give it a few years, but British Columbia might see a tax windfall of over $110 million per year from the sale of legal cannabis, if its experience is anything like Washington State.

“When you’re three or four years into your market and pretty well established, I believe that’s within possibility,” said James MacRae, an industry consultant with the firm Straight Lines Analytics. 

The figure MacRae calculated is $112 million, based on B.C. being about two-thirds the size of Washington State’s market and using a basic description of Canada’s tax regime.

Forget bingo, tea dances and seaside trips. Residents from a chain of Seattle retirement homes are going on Pot for Beginners tours to learn about – and buy – cannabis in the city, where it’s now legal.

Connie Schick said her son roared with laughter when he heard she was joining a field trip to a cannabis-growing operation, an extraction plant and shop. The 79-year-old, who smoked the odd joint in the 70s, wanted to know how legalisation has changed the way the drug is used and produced.

Schick was one of eight women, from their late 60s to mid-80s, who descended from a minibus emblazoned with the name of their assisted living centre, El Dorado West, outside Vela cannabis store last Tuesday.

As the marijuana reform movement grows around the country and legal marijuana becomes a reality, the many great promises of legal weed are beginning to be realized. Reduced prices. More selection. Consistent supply. No legal troubles or safety concerns. No annoying or sketchy drug dealers.

Perhaps one of the most important, at least to some, is consistent and regulated quality. While the black market has certainly provided for us while the government got its act together, many of the marijuana smoked contained harmful pesticides, fungicides, mold, heavy metals, and even additives to make if feel like it was getting us higher.

Two U.S. studies published last week came to different conclusions after analyzing collisions in states such as Colorado and Washington.

With marijuana legalization on the horizon, Canada may be looking south of the border for clues as to how cannabis impacts vehicle collision rates. But a pair of American studies released last week came came to seemingly opposite conclusions on whether rising marijuana use is causing an increase in car crashes in states that have legalized the drug.

Take a black-market business that relies on cash. Move the business out of the shadows by giving it government oversight. Hire new regulators to keep watch on the business, all without any experience regulating a brand-new industry.

Recent cases in Colorado and Washington are the first known instances of current or former cannabis regulators being accused of having improper dealings with the industry. The two recreational marijuana states are the nation’s oldest, approving legal marijuana in defiance of federal law in 2012.

Pacific Century Holdings Inc., a strategic partner for legalized cannabis operators and investors, today announced the opening of a $50 million real estate investment fund, PCH Fund 1, an investment vehicle capitalizing upon the scarcity of real estate assets for the cannabis industry.

The cannabis industry is poised for significant growth but continues to experience a lack of traditional capital due to disparities in federal and state law. As a result, leasing or acquiring property for marijuana operations is complex, limited and hard to obtain. PCH Fund 1 was established to capitalize on this demand by acquiring, owning and managing specialized agricultural, industrial and retail properties for lease by experienced owners of state-regulated cannabis businesses.

Like many medical marijuana patients across the country right now, DeAnna Bigoni is afraid. 

Four years after she started growing and making her own cannabis products to fight a years-long dependence on opioid painkillers, the Washington resident is afraid the Trump administration will take those rights away.

It had been about a year since retailers in Washington state began selling recreational marijuana when Ryan Porter, a vet of the automotive technology industry, saw his opportunity.

He had been consulting for another cannabis startup and saw the need for an automated system that could help marijuana dispensaries manage and track their inventory. Taking the lessons he learned building digital products for AutoNation, Porter launched Grassworks Digital.

“Our core product is Simple Marijuana Menu, which integrates with clients’ point of sale systems, automates inventory updates, and allows consumers to order online,” he said. “Our mission is to be at the forefront of cannabis retail technology.”

Cannabis consumers make more money, spend more time outdoors, volunteer more and are generally more happy about life, according to a study released Thursday. Is smoking marijuana the key to happiness?

According to BDS Analytics, the “well-adjusted lifestyles seen among cannabis consumers serve as a common theme in the findings in the series of reports called ‘Public Attitudes and Actions Towards Legal Cannabis.’ "The data firm conducted the study in California and Colorado. Research is underway in Oregon and Washington.