Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose can’t seem to catch a break. First, Kimberley, B.C., grants a business licence to a medical cannabis dispensary and then Vancouver City Council votes to regulate and license medical cannabis dispensaries. Coupled with the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling that patients can possess all forms of cannabis for medical purposes, Ms. Ambrose is left with feelings of sheer “outrage.”

A political committee leading a renewed effort to pass a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana raised nearly $293,000 in June, with about $233,000 of the money coming from an Orlando law firm headed by prominent trial attorney John Morgan, according to a newly filed report. The committee, People United for Medical Marijuana, is spearheading an effort to pass a medical-marijuana ballot initiative in November 2016, after narrowly failing to pass a similar constitutional amendment in 2014.

ST. GEORGE — The Libertas Institute, an organization dedicated to advancing the cause of liberty in the state of Utah, will hold a public forum on proposals to legalize medical cannabis Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Dixie Center St. George, 1835 S. Convention Center Drive, St. George.

According to a press release from the Libertas Institute, this will be the third in a series of public forums on the issue. The first, which was held in Ogden, focused on the law enforcement aspect of legalizing medical marijauna. The second, held in Provo focused solely on patient stories.

Thursday’s forum will be more of a general event, Libertas Institute President Connor Boyack said, adding that it will broadly touch on a lot of the issues.

Should marijuana businesses pay tax on gross profits or net profits? It sounds like a silly question. Virtually every business in every country pays tax only on net profits, after expenses. But the topsy-turvy rules for marijuana seem to defy logic. And taxes are clearly a big topic these days under both federal and burgeoning state law.

Cannabis should be legal and tobacco should be made illegal, according to a new survey for young people.

Student Money Saver (SMS) polled 1,000 people under the age of 30 to get their views on alcohol and drug use and found high numbers of people were saying substances currently against the law should be made legal.

Over half said they know someone with an alcohol addiction problem and a further 250 people said alcohol should be make illegal.

The main point drawn from the results was that over half of young people thought that cannabis should be legal.

The Colorado Department of Revenue collects millions of dollars in taxes each month from marijuana businesses around the state. The state collected $9.6 million from sales of retail and medical marijuana in April, bringing the current year through May 1 total to $78 million.

Many of these millions are stuffed into duffel bags and driven to the Department of Revenue to be paid in cash.

“It can be really scary,” said Mike Elliott, the executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group.

After 18 months of full-scale legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado, the federal government and state governments here and elsewhere have not found a solution to providing access to banking to the marijuana industry.

DENVER — A federal law crafted to fight the mob is giving marijuana opponents a new strategy in their battle to stop the expanding industry: racketeering lawsuits.

A Colorado pot shop recently closed after a Washington-based group opposed to legal marijuana sued not just the pot shop but a laundry list of firms doing business with it — from its landlord and accountant to the Iowa bonding company guaranteeing its tax payments. One by one, many of the plaintiffs agreed to stop doing business with Medical Marijuana of the Rockies, until the mountain shop closed its doors and had to sell off its pot at fire-sale prices.

This week marks the one-year anniversary since sales of marijuana for recreational use began in Washington state.

In the first year, $70 million in tax revenue has been generated statewide from marijuana sales. The Washington State Liquor Control Board, which oversees the state's cannabis industry, reports that dispensaries sold more than $257 million worth of marijuana.

Chip Boyden, who owns a medical marijuana dispensary in Tucson, Arizona, jumped at the thought of expanding his marijuana business with family in Washington after the first dispensaries started to open in July 2014. Washington voters passed a law in 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21.

Police have discovered a cannabis farm hidden on an artificial island in northeastern Crimea, it's reported.

About 500 plants were being cultivated in neat rows, concealed from prying eyes behind the island's tall rushes, Russia's Lenta.ru news website reports. The farm covered 2,000 sq m (21,500 sq ft) of land, and a man found guarding it was detained, according to local police spokeswoman Yelena Alekseyeva. Video footage from the site shows some of the plants were almost as tall as the police officers who found them.

Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal officials intend to develop a marijuana grow facility on tribal grounds and sell the product in a tribal marijuana lounge.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Five months from now, according to the plan, Indians and non-Indians alike will be smoking marijuana on tribal lands in Flandreau.

The U.S. Justice Department told Indian tribes last December that they can grow and sell marijuana as long as they follow the same federal conditions laid out for Washington, Colorado and other states that have legalized the drug.