Cannabis Commercialization 

"Do I hear 2,000?" America's first pot auction netted the Washington proprietor of Fireweed Farms about $600,000 on Saturday, Nov. 15.

According to the Tri-City Herald, Randy Williams sold about 300 pounds of bud "so he could spend time with his grandson instead of packaging marijuana" all winter long.

A state Liquor Control Board representative on scene told the Herald it was a "well-organized event."

Around 100 people reportedly attended the auction, forcing Williams to rent a parking lot to accommodate the bidders. If California legalizes marijuana in 2016, local auction caller extraordinaire and Supervisor Rex Bohn may have to update his cattle rattle. "Going, going, ganja," anyone?

Secondhand marijuana smoke could be as dangerous as secondhand tobacco smoke, according to a new study released by the University of California, San Francisco.

Head cardiology researcher Matthew Springer told FoxNews.com that tests performed on rats indicate pot smoke could harm blood vessel functions in humans, similarly to the way tobacco smoke does. But it wasn't the THC in the smoke affecting blood flow, meaning eating pot food wouldn't carry the same risks.

In perhaps a testament to the inspiring power of marijuana, the Fox reporter wrote, "Springer said he thought to explore the potential effects of secondhand marijuana smoke a few years ago while attending a Paul McCartney concert."

Nevada is hoping to cash in on pot tourism by allowing card-carrying medical marijuana patients from any U.S. state to purchase weed in Silver State dispensaries.

The move is clearly a gambit to encourage pot purchases in Las Vegas, which sees 40 million visitors a year. Rhode Island and Maine offer similar reciprocity, according to USA Today, but Vegas is the first mega-destination to lure high rollers. No need to sweat through airport security for your next weekend trip to Sin City.

Stoners in rural Alaska, meanwhile, are still uncertain how they'll be able to get newly legal recreational pot. Many remote Alaskan communities rely on airplanes and boat travel to connect to population centers, where goods and services are centralized (including, presumably, weed).

But federal laws still govern much of that travel, and the Alaska Dispatch News reports that many people are unsure just what policies will be in place for marijuana transport by air and sea.

The TSA currently reports contraband to local law enforcement, who determine if there's a crime involved, according to the Dispatch. And federal prosecutors have indicated they won't seek charges on minor marijuana offenses in states where it's been legalized. But the Coast Guard has said it will continue to enforce marijuana laws on Alaska's marine highways.

There's a good debate over on the New York Times opinion pages about the economy of legal marijuana. "Is 'Big Marijuana' Inevitable?" the editors ask — and it's an important question.

One author wants to see cannabis reform continue in the "grow and give" model (which Washington, D.C. just approved, making it legal to grow and possess marijuana, but not sell it). Letting it into the hands of profiteers would increase drug abuse and illegal exports, he argues.

Others say that only with commercialization comes the consumer safety, protections and convenience of a modern marijuana market, and that governments can use income from regulated marijuana to specifically redress decades of wrongs from the war on drugs, funding programs to help communities hit hardest.

Another says that big tobacco's deceitful marketing — finally reformed in recent years — is poised to re-emerge with big marijuana. "A drug that once epitomized the counterculture now seems to be making its way into Wall Street boardrooms," he writes. "And that cannot be good for any of us."