This week Fortune.com reports on cannabis industry development in Israel:

Licensed marijuana growers work with scientific institutions in clinical trials towards the development of cannabis strains that treat a variety of illnesses and disorders. One step forward for the Israel cannabis market.

There are about 120 studies ongoing in Israel, including clinical trials looking at the effects of cannabis on autism, epilepsy, psoriasis, and tinnitus.

In contrast to the United States, which is currently the biggest legal marijuana market, authorities in Israel are liberal in their support of research and development.

The government gave the go-ahead in February to legislation that would allow export.

But importing cannabis to the United States is illegal under federal law. The only way to get around the ban is to receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

[While in ]Canada, for instance, exports medical cannabis to Australia, Croatia, and Chile.

More than 500 Israeli companies have applied for licenses to grow, manufacture and export cannabis products, according to government officials, and some are already capitalizing on the booming U.S. market.

In the past year, U.S. and other firms have invested about $100 million to license Israeli medical marijuana patents, cannabis agro-tech startups and firms developing delivery devices such as inhalers.

Source: Medical Marijuana: Israel Using Tech to Get Into Cannabis Market | Fortune.com

Illinois lawmakers propose legalizing recreational marijuana, but a vote is not expected until next year.

The state would license and regulate businesses to grow, process and sell the plant, and it would establish safety regulations such as testing and labeling requirements, sponsors said.

The measure would also allow residents to possess up to 28 grams of pot, or about an ounce, and to grow five plants.

Source: Illinois lawmakers propose legalizing recreational marijuana – Chicago Tribune

Ohio’s new law on medical marijuana prohibits private laboratories from testing medical marijuana’s properties for one year.

No other state tests medical marijuana like this, because university officials are way of losing federal money.

Source: Testing could stall access to medical marijuana in Ohio

      (AP) – The Arkansas House has voted against House Bill 1392 to ban marijuana edibles in the state. Local Representatives were split on the issue. Nelda Speaks, Scott Baltz, John Payton and David Branscum voted for the

Source: Proposed ban on marijuana edibles fails in Arkansas House | KTLO LLC

Four months after Florida passed Amendment 2, which passed with 71 percent of the vote in November legislators discuss implementation and review marijuana rules and processes. The Florida senate is exploring multiple versions of medical marijuana legislation.

“What began as a decisive instruction from voters that patients who need medical marijuana should have access to it is shaping up to be a complex and contentious fight.

Florida House’s lone medical marijuana bill (HB 1397) outlines a more restrictive approach, banning smoking and edibles, as well as “vaping,” which is allowed under a current law passed in 2014 that lets some patients with severe epilepsy and cancer use cannabis low in the chemical THC, which causes a euphoric high.”

A legislative hearing on marijuana legalization in Connecticut began Wednesday, Marh 22, 2017 with sharp disagreement over the risks of recreational pot. In this hearing, the Connecticut Judiciary Committee heard recreational marijuana opinions.

The hearing comes while Connecticut is facing a $1.7 billion budget gap for the fiscal year that begins July 1. A laundry list of unpopular spending cuts to cities and towns, social services and environmental programs, have been proposed.

Experts estimate that taxes from recreational marijuana sales could bring in $13 million in revenue in the first six months, $64 million in the first full year of legalization, and $100 million a year after that for CT.

The legalization bill would regulate marijuana like alcohol, prohibiting marijuana use by anyone under 21. It would limit legal possession to no more than 1 ounce of marijuana; and allow home cultivation of five plants per adult.

The bill allows for five types of marijuana businesses, all licensed and regulated by the state: pot retailers, lounges, cultivation facilities, product manufacturers, and laboratories.

A member of the Connecticut Association of Prevention Professionals, warned that lawmakers risk “opening a floodgate” to more drug abuse, traffic fatalities and hospital visits.

John Hudak, an expert from the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution, said he wasn’t testifying for or against legalization. He explained, state taxes on pot could make the price of legal marijuana too high, convincing consumers “to stick with the black market” or buy pot in other states, which would reduce the amount of state revenue. Setting taxes too low could make a state’s legal marijuana so inexpensive that it might encourage over use.

Students, in high school testified against legalizing pot, arguing that it would lead to increased teen use of marijuana. (Trends in other states show otherwise).

Rep. Toni Walker, a New Haven Democrat on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said making pot use a criminal offense pushes young people into the court and prison systems. Additionally, Walker explained that studies out of legal states, like Washington, found only 3 percent of drivers involved in fatal accidents in that state between 2010 and 2014 had been using marijuana. Studies have found that pot “was not the main factor” in the vast majority of accidents, and that alcohol and texting and other types of distracted driving are all more significant issues with accident than marijuana use.

Sources: Courant.com

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San Diego police have a new way to confirm the presence of marijuana and other drugs in impaired drivers — a mouth-swab device that is already being used by police departments in more than a dozen states and is expected to become more popular with the legalization of marijuana.

Source: San Diego rolls out mouth-swab marijuana testing devices – The Cannifornian

Ohio entrepreneurs want a residency requirement for medical marijuana cultivator licenses.

Source: Ohio medical marijuana entrepreneurs want residency requirement for business licenses | cleveland.com

Hearings on Massachusetts’ recreational marijuana begin in the Statehouse in Boston today, where lawmakers will mull potential changes to the voter-approved legislation legalizing marijuana use among adults and paving the way for commercial sale of the drug.

Source: Recreational marijuana takes center stage in Massachusetts Statehouse hearings Monday | masslive.com