A disproportionately small group of cannabis cultivation businesses in California control a large share of the licenses intended for “small” farming operations, a Business Journal review of state data has found.

Since Jan. 1, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has awarded about 540 temporary licenses for so-called “small” operations—that is, for cultivation that takes place on less than one quarter of an acre outdoors or less than 10,000 square feet indoors or in "mixed-light" settings. These temporary licenses last four months and are seen as a first step toward a permanent license.

Approximately 250 businesses have been awarded licenses for small cultivation. However, 10 of those businesses control about 30 percent of the licenses awarded. Two cultivators—Honeydew Farms LLC and Central Coast Farmer’s Market Management LLC—have been awarded about 30 licenses each.

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From growing the perfect crop to marketing within restrictive rules, Canadian colleges and universities are cultivating courses for those wanting to work in the booming marijuana industry.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University started offering online courses in cannabis production, marketing and financing about three years ago after officials at the British Columbia school realized there was a need for training and education around medicinal marijuana, said David Purcell, the university's director of emerging business.

RELATED: Canadian Cannabis News

Demand is skyrocketing, prompting Kwantlen to offer the classes every four weeks instead of every eight to keep up with demand, he said.

"The uptake in the last six months or so, the demand has risen significantly as we approach recreational legalization, obviously. You can't go a day without seeing some sort of news about cannabis or regulation of the upcoming recreational market," Purcell said.

About 1,200 people have taken the classes, most of whom are between 25 and 40 years old and were working full-time in another industry, he said.

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In two weeks, Cresco Yeltrah’s CY+ dispensary expects to transact the first legal medical marijuana purchase in Western Pennsylvania from a gray, fortress-like one-story building near the city of Butler’s baseball field. That same week, Solevo Wellness plans to open its dispensary in Squirrel Hill.

Pennsylvania’s budding medical marijuana program has arrived.

The Butler facility is planning a grand opening event Saturday afternoon, and visitors may be surprised by what they find.

“It’s a bunker,” joked Trent Hartley, one of Cresco Yeltrah’s co-founders, while giving a brief tour last week.

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HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA) — It’s been a month since recreational marijuana became legal in California, and pot consumers have one more city- and state-approved shop where they can buy their pot over the counter in Los Angeles.

MMD, Inc. was open for business Friday, with a long line of eager customers waiting by the time the doors opened at 10 a.m.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Steve Ashbell of MMD Dispensary told CBS2 News. The shop near the Cahuenga and Sunset in the heart of Hollywood calls itself the first dispensary in the area to get a license from the City of Los Angeles and the State of California for adult use sales of legal marijuana.

He’s part of a large chorus of folks calling this the end of marijuana “prohibition.”

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