California is on the brink of legalizing hemp-derived cannabidiol (“Hemp CBD”) in many products—well, sort of.

Jay-Z is heading into the legal marijuana industry as a chief brand strategist in partnership with a California cannabis product company.

The rapper said in a statement Tuesday that he entered a multiyear deal with San Jose, California-based Caliva. His role will consist of driving creative direction, outreach efforts and strategy for the brand.

Jay-Z says he also wants to increase the economic participation of people returning from incarceration through job training and workforce development.

The rapper called Caliva "the best partners for this endeavour."

Caliva operates a farm and two stores in Northern California. It also distributes its branded products in roughly two dozen other retail outlets in the state.

California cannabis manufacturer Apex Extractions announced on Tuesday that it is launching a new subscription program that will deliver top-quality cannabis concentrates directly to California consumers. The Apex Fresh Club, as the program is known, will send a selection of three concentrates with cannabis sourced from some of California’s finest cultivators to a discerning clientele.

Two years ago, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 64, which legalized adult cannabis use. Fast forward two years later, and the illicit market is “getting worse, not better.”

California cannabis regulators launched a new campaign on Friday that aims to combat the illicit marijuana market by educating consumers about the risks of unlicensed operators. Lori Ajax, the Chief of the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), said in a press release that the statewide “Get #weedwise” public information program will encourage consumers to only purchase cannabis products from licensed businesses and serve as a warning to unlicensed companies to submit to regulation.

As cannabis and CBD legalization sweeps across North America, one problematic area to date has been food, drinks, and cosmetics that contain CBD.

California just made a groundbreaking decision in the right direction. As long as the food or beverage contains CBD (Cannabidiol) that is derived from hemp and not from cannabis, it will soon be legal for retail sale and consumption in California. That also includes topicals and other cosmetics that contain CBD.

California cannabis farmers facing a potential “extinction event” could see help in the state budget package with measures that would allow nascent businesses to continue operating with provisional licenses and open opportunities for new growers.

The fixes would give the state and local governments more time to decide whether to grant annual licenses to marijuana businesses that obtained temporary ones after voters passed Proposition 64 in 2016 to legalize recreational cannabis.

Any investment in the cannabis industry is considered a high-risk. Why? Cannabis is still pretty much the wild west. While marijuana is not yet federally legal, cannapreneurs struggle with balancing enticing opportunities in the industry with the limiting legislation. Many entrepreneurs commit to loans with high interest rates that are difficult to pay off in desperation to get their business off the ground, but you don’t have to. Here’s everything you need to know about securing funding for your cannabis business.

Despite legalization continuing to spread, and efforts advocating towards federal legalization of cannabis, the black market in the U.S. for cannabis continues to thrive across the nation.

Simply put, despite access and legal product being available, people are still as or more likely to purchase their cannabis from black market sources, with this trend not showing any signs of stopping.

We already know that inordinate amounts of people are in jail for small-time marijuana possession across the country — even in states that have legalized recreational marijuana, but are behind the times when it comes to the expungement of past criminal records.

Compounding this issue is the prisoners who are caught with cannabis when they are already in jail, an offense that can end up adding years to their sentence and hence, costing taxpayers a whole lot of money to keep non-violent offenders locked up.