Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed two bills on Monday that expanded access to the state’s medical marijuana program, which currently stands at over 80,000 patients. The legislation ensures the medical marijuana program’s status as a permanent system, and adds to the ways in which patients are able to access their cannabis.

“We’re telling each and every one of those patients, we’re on your side,” Pritzker said during Monday’s news conference.

Democratic Gov. John Carney has signed legislation amending criminal penalties for juveniles who violate the state’s marijuana possession laws.

Senate Bill 45 eliminates criminal penalties for low-level marijuana possession offenses (up to one ounce) for those under the age of 21. Instead, juvenile offenders will face a fine-only civil penalty. Those with past criminal convictions for juvenile offenses will be eligible for the mandatory expungement of their records.

The new law took effect immediately upon signing.

Marijuana users have often been plagued by the August drought: those dog days of late summer that fall between harvests in Mexico or somewhere when there was simply no weed available, when you went down your list of dealers and struck out on every one with a "call me back in a week or two" response.

The DEA spent $18 million last year eradicating illegal marijuana grows, though it allegedly doesn’t know where most of the money went.

Following the tragic shootings in Texas and Ohio last week, the nation asked what more could be done to fight domestic terrorism. Donald Trump was on board to help, promising federal officers “whatever they need” to effectively counteract homegrown terrorists. But as VICE News reports, Trump should first look at the money his administration spends destroying marijuana plants.

This weekend festival-goers in Northern California had the opportunity to buy legal weed for the first time ever at a major music event in the United States. 

San Francisco’s Outside Lands music festival (August 9-11) takes place at Golden Gate Park with about 200,000 visitors each year. To the delight of both music and weed lovers, this year’s edition also hosted Grass Lands – a cordoned-off area that welcomed about two dozen marijuana vendors.

Visitors could buy a wide array of products ranging from pre-rolled joints to cannabis-infused chocolates to enjoy at the festival even though consuming pot in public is still illegal in California.

When members of Congress voted to legalize hemp late last year, they likely did not envision that it would make it harder for law enforcement in places such as Florida and Texas. But that’s exactly what has happened.

Officials in both Florida and Texas have voiced their intention to stop the prosecution of low-level marijuana cases. That’s because no reliable field test exists that can tell the difference between the presence of hemp, which won’t get you high, and cannabis, which will.

Missouri has begun accepting applications for its medical marijuana program as of Saturday, August 3, and the competition looks like it will be fierce.

Up to 2,000 applications are expected to vie for 348 licenses, and already over 600 applicants have paid the application fees before the applications even opened, according to the Missouri Department of Health.

The licenses are divided between different categories — 60 for cultivation facilities, 86 for processors, 192 for dispensaries and 10 for testing laboratories.

A historically black university in Ohio is advancing its plans to become the first public institution in the state to conduct hemp research.

Central State University announced Thursday it’s received $7.1 million in contributions toward current initiatives, including its new hemp research program.

The sum includes a single record-setting private donation of $2 million from philanthropist Frank Murphy.

President Cynthia Jackson-Hammond says Central State is the only Ohio public university planting seeds for research into hemp, a strain of the cannabis plant used for fiber and cannabidiol (kan-uh-bih-DY’-ahl), or CBD.

In a decision that attorneys say could open the door to other class-action lawsuits, a petition has been approved to seal the criminal records of 350 people with marijuana misdemeanors in Manhattan.

Call it Reefer Gladness. Today the editors of Green Entrepreneur unveiled our first-annual “Green 100” list, (plus 21 to Watch) saluting the best cannabis products, services, and events in the market. This also marks the first anniversary of Green Entrepreneurs’ entry into the market. So happy birthday to us!