MIAMI (Reuters) - A Miami jury convicted a man who faces up to 35 years in prison for growing marijuana in a bedroom of his house in what he says was an act of love to help his wife who is recovering from breast cancer, local media reported.

Ricardo Varona, 43, was arrested in July 2014 and charged with marijuana trafficking after police said they seized 15 live marijuana plants that could have produced more than 30 pounds of usable weed.

In closing arguments on Friday, Varona's lawyer, Jose Aguirre, told jurors in Miami state court that detectives did not find any money ledgers, drug scales or packaging equipment at Varona's house that would show he was selling pot for money.

VANCOUVER -- Local governments in British Columbia have declared they have the authority to licence medical marijuana dispensaries, defying the federal government's opposition to regulation of the illegal stores.

Delegates at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention voted in favour of a resolution endorsing the position that they have the power to regulate pot dispensaries.

The resolution states that an ongoing court challenge of Ottawa's medical marijuana laws has created uncertainty while pot shops proliferate and cause problems in B.C.

Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal said the vote sends a strong message to the federal government, which has not provided reasonable legal access to medical marijuana despite court rulings requiring them to do so.

A prominent cannabis campaigner from Stockport has called on the NHS to GROW their own cannabis in a bid to save money on pharmaceutical drugs.

Colin Davies says he is continuing to lead a revolution on restrictive laws, which he claims are preventing terminally ill people from accessing treatment that could save them.

The 57-year-old, who famously once handed the Queen a bouquet of cannabis leaves, is keen to push a debate on the subject, and has been campaigning on the streets of Manchester in an effort to educate people on the health benefits and dangers of cannabis.

DEAReps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) have joined up for an interesting proposal to scale back both the drug war and asset forfeiture on the federal level. Rather than trying to control how law enforcement agencies collect or distribute seized assets from busts, they want to reduce some incentives by controlling how the seized assets may be used.

The Drug Enforcement Administration spent $960,000 to destroy marijuana plants in that state in 2014 as part of its "Cannabis Eradication Program," according to a recent report by NBC affiliate KGW in Portland, Ore.

That year, the DEA succeeded in removing 16,067 pot plants from Oregon, which at first blush sounds like a lot of weed. But when you do the math, that works out to a cost to taxpayers of $60 per uprooted plant. That is a lot when you consider that nationally, it costs the DEA *ahem* $4.20 to eliminate a single marijuana plant under this program.

Between 1911, when Massachusetts became the first state to ban marijuana, and 1937, when Congress made pot prohibition the law of the land, cannabis acquired a reputation as a “killer drug” that drove people to irrational acts of violence. Since 2012, when Colorado became the first state to repeal its ban on marijuana, that quaint notion has made something of a comeback, mainly due to the April 2014 death of Kristine Kirk, a 44-year-old Denver mother of three, at the hands of her husband, Richard.

In 2013, Uruguay took the unprecedented step of legalizing the production and use of marijuana. Yet, two years on, a commercial market is still in the project stage: not a single gram of cannabis has been cultivated for sale in pharmacies. The process is mired in complex regulatory details. It seems that legalizing marijuana is more complicated than anyone had predicted.

China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Seattle earlier this week for his first official state visit as president and head of the Chinese Communist Party. The talks are expected to be dominated by the topics of trade, cybersecurity, and the South China Sea. But while Mr. Xi is in the cannabis-friendly state of Washington, will his country’s long history with the plant find its way into bi-lateral talks? Here are five talking points Mr. Xi could use if pressed on the topic by Washingtonians.

As the issue of whether or not to legalize medical marijuana continues to gain attention, one local organization believes marijuana should not be legal.

A summit on Thursday, hosted by Circle Park Behavioral Health Services in Florence, aimed to educate educators, parents and law enforcement about marijuana risks.

The State Law Enforcement Division led that discussion as they were very critical as what many believe are benefits to legalizing medical marijuana.

“I think it’s really important for parents to be talking about it with their kids as well.  I have a 17-year-old and 15-year-old,” said Cindy Averitt.

Averitt is the mother of two high school kids and member of the Florence County Coalition for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention.

It is hard for me to comprehend that we live in a state where it will soon be legal to cultivate commercial marijuana, but it is still against the law to grow industrial hemp, one of the world’s most versatile and useful crops. Last session I introduced Senate Bill 8 to change that. The bill moved out of the Senate Resources Committee last session, but has yet to be heard in Judiciary. Although the main issue we will be focusing on in the upcoming session is how to deal with the fiscal crisis at hand, it is critical we pass SB 8 before the 29th Legislature comes to an end.