Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a leading voice for the reform of marijuana laws in the United States, became the first sitting member of Congress in recent history to admit to medical marijuana use.

Rohrabacher, speaking to a group of cannabis activists on Tuesday on Capital Hill, said he has been an avid surfer for about three decades but had not been able to enjoy the sport for about a year and a half due to arthritis pain he’s developed in his shoulder. The pain became so severe that it has disrupted his sleep, the lawmaker said.

That is, until he tried medical marijuana.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan have operated in a grey area for quite some time now. Michigan’s medical marijuana law does not specify whether dispensaries are allowable or not. Michigan caregivers are allowed to help out other patients, which is usually the provision that dispensaries operate on. Michigan dispensaries have been under attack due to the lack of statewide regulations. The Michigan Appeals Court ruled against medical marijuana dispensaries recently, dealing a blow to the growing dispensary population in Michigan. Per Marijuana Business Daily:

A proposal to legalize Ohio medical marijuana has squeaked through a critical Senate panel over opposition of some Republicans and Democrats.

The Senate Government Oversight & Reform Committee’s 7-to-5 vote Wednesday sets the stage for probable passage of the bill out of both legislative chambers by the end of the day. State lawmakers are rushing the bill out before their summer recess as ammunition against a well-funded medical marijuana issue working its way to fall ballots.

The final bill bars patients from smoking or growing marijuana for medical use, but allows its use in vapor form for certain chronic health conditions.

Government plans to ban ‘legal highs’ will make them as hard to get hold of as cannabis, we can report today.

Cannabis has been nigh-impossible to source in the UK ever since it was criminalised in 1928, and the government plans to extend the law to include substances which people who cannot find a dealer have been resorting to.

People who attempt to buy weed illegally have been foiled at every step and drug advisory bodies are fully in support of this latest extension to the law, describing it as “sensible and easily enforceable.”

A government spokesman told us, “Criminalisation has resulted in the blight of cannabis vanishing from this country.”

Although in the country no one was penalized, and a decree was signed in December regulated its use for medicinal purposes, only a law could protect the initiative.

The House of Representatives, for lack of a quorum, suspended the approval of the bill that would put the country at the same level of Chile, Puerto Rico and Uruguay on issues of use and consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Senator Juan Manuel Galan, speaker for the project, said that the law shall regulate the planting, cultivation and distribution of cannabis and medicinal products based on this plant.

The lawmaker behind the plan to have a pharmacist in every dispensary says it's the most responsible way to oversee marijuana as medicine.

A legislative proposal to regulate medical marijuana through Ohio’s pharmacy board was scrapped Tuesday over concerns the rare setup nationally would create an undue burden on the state.

Republican Sen. David Burke, a Marysville pharmacist behind the idea, called the arrangement the most responsible way to oversee marijuana as medicine. He said changes introduced in the Senate Government Oversight Committee on Tuesday were needed to strike a workable compromise.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" goes the old joke, with the obvious answer being, "to get to the other side." Sadly, not all of life's questions have such simple and obvious answers.

Jason Pinsky is a passionate advocate for cannabis legislation in New York. His own personal struggle to overcome a dependency to OxyContin after spinal surgery 15-years ago thrusted him into the cannabis advocacy and legislation sphere.  He was instrumental in the 2014 legislation that legalized cannabis for a select few within the state, and now he wants to improve the program so that everyone who needs medical cannabis can get it.

Recent regulations in both Washington state and Oregon now allow out of state investors to fund and/or compete with local cannabis businesses.

Oregon and Washington recreational cannabis businesses will soon face greater pressure from outside competition as new regulations now allow out-of-state investors to fund and compete with local cannabis businesses. 

This new legislation lifts residency requirements enabling once banned out-of-state investors to participate-in and fund Oregon and Washington cannabis operations.

Meghan Walstatter owner of Pure Green Dispensary in Portland, Oregon said she used to favor residency requirements, but now she welcomes outside influence. 

Barcelona’s first-ever female mayor has just accomplished another first: proposing to keep the city’s famous Cannabis Social Clubs in business by implementing workable official regulations.

Last summer, Ada Colau became mayor in the historic Catalan capital. This week, she granted amnesty to existing clubs, allowing more than a hundred that were slated for permanent closure to remain open and continue shared cannabis cultivation and distribution.

But it’s an open question as to whether Mayor Colau’s move will allow the city to keep the title of Europe’s New Amsterdam, as the rules seem to change with each new municipal government.