Paul wants a much smaller federal government that does much less — and he's laid out a detailed plan for what this would look like. On foreign policy, he wants to be far more cautious about using the military abroad — a challenge to his party's orthodoxy. He wants to reform our criminal justice system's sentencing and drug laws. And he strongly opposes abortion and supports gun rights.

Though he's been in the Senate only four years, Paul has managed to place himself at the center of many policy debates — and his candidacy should lead to a substantive, issue-focused debate on where this country should go.

A STAGNANT Australian mining company, known as a zombie, is morphing into a marijuana and industrial hemp company and intends to be the first listed company of its type.

The Canberra based Capital Mining has barely traded with its shares valued at less than a cent, hence the zombie category, but it is now aiming at snapping up future global licences in countries where legislation surrounding marijuana changes.

Capital listed on the ASX March 2007 and was engaged in the exploration for deposits of gold, base metals, platinum, nickel, uranium and other rare metals in south eastern Australia.

It follows the listing of Phytotech in January, a medical marijuana company which is also aiming at the US market.

Kelly Slater has bought the film and television rights to "Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade".

The 11-time world surfing champion is expanding his business fields. Slater is ready to adapt Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter's book to the screens. The final result will be a documentary film and a TV series.

"This is a history they certainly don't teach you in school but an important and significant cultural phenomenon that occurred mostly undocumented. It took the professional historian and former smuggler 15 years to complete, and it is based on thousands of hours of interviews," explains Kelly Slater.

By Anya Sostek / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

First came marijuana legalization. And now comes commercialization.

Late last month, Willie Nelson announced plans to open a chain of marijuana stores in states such as California, Colorado and Washington, with a spokesman likening the business model to “a Whole Foods store.”

Within the last year, singer Melissa Etheridge announced plans to produce cannabis wine, Bob Marley’s estate launched Marley National, a marijuana brand “offering heirloom Jamaican cannabis strains” and movie producer and director Kevin Smith branded two strains of weed to promote his walrus horror film “Tusk.”

Taxes are too high, competition from medical marijuana too great and the bureaucracy is overwhelmed by the volume of applications -- the perfect recipe for a robust black market

The highs, and lows, of legal marijuana

Amber McGowan surveys the clutch of customers milling around the three counters in her tiny marijuana retail outlet and nods approvingly – pot is hot.

Men and women who appear to be mostly over 50 consider products with names such as Headband, Skunk, Banana Kush and THC Bomb. A five-pack of oatmeal cookies that are nothing like the ones your mother used to make go for $42 (U.S.). Behind a glass enclosure there are bongs of every colour and description. Psychedelic renderings grace the store’s wood-panelled walls.

Not feeling the unpaid internship? There’s an alternative in states like Colorado.

Marijuana bud trimmers can make a starting salary of $12 to $15 an hour, The Associated press reports. Successful employees might eventually become gardeners or concentrate makers and take home as much as $90,000 a year.

The work entails trimming away the leaves from the marijuana plant and needs to be done by hand, using small scissors.

People think it’s a job for stoners, but it’s not, according to 32-year-old Brittny Houghton, whose family owns a dispensary in Colorado.

A block down Colfax from High Street sits a B&B where bed and breakfast goes hand-in-hand with bongs and buds. And it’s about to become a more permanent fixture in the pot tourism scene.

Hospitality management newcomers the MaryJane Group plan to close on a deal to purchase the Adagio Bud & Breakfast for $1.5 million on May 15. The company – which has leased the Adagio since April 2014 to test out the viability of its “canna-lodging” hospitality concept – is purchasing the property to run it permanently.

New York native Joel Schneider, CEO of the MaryJane Group, is the mastermind behind the Bud & Breakfast model.

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 6, 2015) - Abba Medix Corp., ("Abba Medix", a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saratoga Electronic Solutions Inc., "Saratoga", or the "Company") (CSE:ABA) is pleased to report that it has entered into a Letter of Intent with 9037136 Canada Inc., operating and known as Redecan Pharm ("Redecan"), a Health Canada licensed producer and distributor of medical marijuana.

Redecan is focused on developing premium quality medical marijuana products and is a licensed producer and seller, able to cultivate marijuana under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations ("MMPR") in Canada.

TORONTO -- The people who own restaurants, bars and pubs in Ontario have an idea to give consumers another option to buy beer -- so-called "off sales" from their establishments.

The industry group Restaurants Canada says six provinces, including Quebec and British Columbia, already allow restaurants and bars to sell beer for home consumption as part of their liquor licences.

Restaurants Canada vice-president James Rilett says staff in restaurants and bars are trained to sell alcoholic beverages, and calls the idea of "off sales" a natural evolution in Ontario's retail system.

Rilett says "off sales" would also mean wider distribution for craft and micro brewers who complain about their limited access to the LCBO and Beer Store.

LINCOLN PARK – A longtime family agriculture business in Morris County has partnered with a publicly-traded corporation to enter a new growth business — medical marijuana.

The VandeVrede family business began in 1973 with a small farm in Lincoln Park and expanded over the decades to the popular Gro-Rite Greenhouse and Garden Center on Hillview Road near the Lincoln Park Airport. That property includes about 25 acres of land and a greenhouse covering three-quarters of an acre.