GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Women Grow, a national group of women dedicated to legally growing and marketing marijuana and marijuana-related products and services, is forming a West Michigan chapter. 

The group will host an initial networking event from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7 at Peppino's,130 Ionia Ave. SW, in downtown Grand Rapids. Tickets are $20 in advance or $30 on the week of the event. 

"I would love to help communities learn how to embrace this instead of fighting it," said Jamie Goswick, organizer of the event.

BETHESDA, Maryland -- Kevin Sabet, the man Salon called the quarterback of the new anti-drug movement, the guy Rolling Stone labeled the No.

Medicinal cannabis company AusCann Group is set to plant a crop on Christmas Island after raising $3 million.

The company, which is chaired by former federal Liberal MP Mal Washer, said it had already commenced engagement with members of the 2000-strong community on the Indian Ocean territory, which hosts immigration detention facilities.

AusCann, which is planning to list on the Australian market in early 2016, outlined today that it believed there would be minimal impact on the Christmas Island ecosystem as the trials would be undertaken on reclaimed phosphate mining land.

Sen Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge(Photo: Dale G. Young / Detroit News file)

Lansing — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Rick Jones said Tuesday he plans to advance a package of bills clarifying the legal status of medical marijuana dispensaries and “edible” forms of pot before the Legislature adjourns for the year.

Whether there will be a full Senate vote yet this year on the House-passed bills, said Jones, remains to be decided by Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, and the GOP majority caucus in the Senate.

Jones backs the legislation, which he said is necessary to clear up problems with Michigan’s medical marijuana law.

CARBONDALE — Four people face charges after a Carbondale marijuana shop was robbed at gunpoint as it was opening Monday morning.

Carbondale Police Chief Gene Schilling said two robbers walked through the front door of Sweet Leaf Pioneer marijuana shop on Village Road at about 10 a.m. and one showed a gun to employees. No customers were in the shop at the time, the chief said.

The pair fled in a red Ford Mustang with “an undisclosed amount of cash,” according to a press release from Carbondale police.

Authorities alerted law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for a stolen red Mustang.

Schilling said the robbers also took items besides cash, but he wouldn’t disclose what they were.

As many in the cannabis space know, reggae music was developed in Jamaica, mostly independent of the music industry’s influence and spin. And Regulation A, as now amended because of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012, will allow companies, including those in the cannabis world, the option to take themselves public with or without the need for a Wall Street underwriter, and certainly without the involvement of the individual states.

Marijuana discussions return to the Gresham City Council on Tuesday as officials plan to recommend to councilors the repeal an existing 10 percent sales tax on recreational marijuana, and instead ask voters to approve a 3 percent tax.

The repeal of the 10 percent tax would keep the city in compliance with laws passed by state lawmakers this year that amended last year's Ballot Measure 91, according to City Council records. More than 51 percent of the Gresham voters who casted ballots supported Measure 91, which authorized recreational drug use.

WRIGLEYVILLE — Security plans for a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in Lakeview left some neighbors so satisfied they suggested nearby bars implement the same measures.

The 24/7 on-site security and extensive surveillance camera capabilities were enough to convince some that MedMar Inc. would successfully operate at 3812 N. Clark St.

Pharmaceuticals firm hopes to get positive results from key trials next year, paving the way for the regulatory green light

GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes drugs derived from the cannabis plant, is scaling up its manufacturing capacity ahead of an expected approval of a new treatment for children with life-threatening epilepsy.

GW Pharmaceuticals plc (GWPH) is a pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform. GWPH commercialized the world's first plant-derived cannabinoid prescription drug, Sativex, which is approved for the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis in 27 countries outside the United States.

GWPH has an extensive product pipeline which should enable to the company to be a major player for years to come. GWPH recently reported data pertaining to its Epidiolex product and we expect 2016 to be a milestone year for the company. 

Favorable Data Presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s Annual Meeting