WeedLife News Network

Branson’s firsthand exposure to cannabis-funded drug abuse treatment in Colorado is significant, state officials and marijuana industry representatives agree.

Cannabis cultivation is moving from darkened basements into well-lit growhouses and even farm fields. As more states legalize the growth of marijuana or hemp, growers are turning to traditional farmers for help in turning cannabis into the next big American commodity.

DENVER — Marijuana is rapidly becoming a big, semi-legal business across the country, with $5.7 billion in sales last year and tens of thousands of people working and paying taxes as they cultivate, package and sell cannabis.

Kentucky is accelerating hemp production in the third year of testing its potential as a cash crop.

Vireo Health of New York is battling Google because it blocked their digital advertising for marijuana-based drugs.

The growing acceptance and legalization of marijuana is helping the U.S. cannabis industry expand well beyond niche status. It's forecast to pump from $24 billion to $44 billion annually into the country's economy by 2020, according to an industry publication.

The weed industry is becoming a legitimate economic engine. Sales of legal marijuana in the US are estimated to more than double by 2020, as is the broader economic impact of the industry, a new report predicts.

BOSTON - A measure on track for the November statewide ballot would open the doors of the Massachusetts marketplace to legal use of recreational marijuana. But a small section in the proposed ballot measure promoted by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol would also regulate the cultivation, process, distribution and sale of hemp.

EMPIRE, Colo. – Colorado’s $1 billion marijuana industry is helping some small towns stay afloat. A prime example is the town of Empire, in Clear Creek County.

Is there serious money to be made trading the flowers and leaves of the cannabis plant? Amercanex isn’t alone in betting there will be, someday.

Legal pot startups brought in more than $200 million from investors last year, more than twice what they had in 2014.

The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe already runs a smoke shop downtown and a golf course in the northwest valley. Now a third business venture — in medical marijuana — is on the horizon.

Marijuana may be the fastest growing industry in the U.S., with expected yearly revenue of $11 billion by 2019. So, why aren't major insurance companies providing coverage?

Adelanto, known 80 years ago for its fruit trees, is tying its star to another agricultural boom. In November, it became the second city in Southern California to permit commercial cultivation of medical marijuana.

Marijuana is legal to buy in several states, but no law says that selling it will be free from cumbersome expense and paperwork, especially when it comes to taxation.

As legal marijuana markets continue to expand in the United States, some experts are arguing that growers have both the need and the opportunity to make their operations, well, greener.