Presidential candidates are talking about marijuana in ways unimaginable not long ago.

White House hopefuls in both parties are taking donations from people in the new marijuana industry, which is investing heavily in political activism as a route to expanded legalization and landed its first major candidate, Rand Paul, at a trade show last month.

Several Republicans, like Democrats, are saying they won’t interfere with states that are legalizing a drug still forbidden under federal law. And at conservative policy gatherings, Republicans are discussing whether drug sentences should be eased.

By Margaret Wenet, Globe & Mail

Last year, the federal government spent $5.2-million on medical marijuana for Canada’s veterans. This year it will spend a lot more. Marijuana is a popular way to relieve the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and some veterans swear it saved their lives. Now consultation services designed to hook up vets with pot are spreading across the country. Marijuana for Trauma, founded by former Canadian Forces member Fabian Henry, has already helped hundreds of veterans in Atlantic Canada and is now expanding to Ontario. “I’m expecting thousands to be coming through the door in the coming years,” he told the CBC.

It is now legal for medical marijuana users to consume other forms of the drug beyond the traditional dried version. Health Canada has implemented new rules that follow a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.

However the Harper government still is upset at the decision, and warns of potential problems.

“They will implement what the Supreme Court has said in their court imposed marijuana for medicinal purposes program,” Health Minister Rona Ambrose told reporters. “But their first top of line message is, marijuana is not a medicine, it’s not an approved medicine.”

Two bills aimed at regulating California’s marijuana industry cleared key hurdles in the state Legislature on Wednesday after one North Coast lawmaker hauled a live pot plant into the Capitol to illustrate the value of the lucrative crop.

State Sen. Mike McGuire’s Medical Marijuana Public Safety and Environmental Protection Act, SB 643, advanced from the Assembly Business and Professions Committee on Tuesday and heads to the Health Committee next week.

The bill would establish a broad regulatory structure for California’s medical marijuana industry, which has been plagued by ineffective and confusing rules despite being legal at the state level since 1996.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On July 8, 2015, special agents with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), assisted by other federal and state agencies and the Modoc County Sheriff’s Office, conducted a search of two large-scale marijuana cultivation facilities located on federally recognized tribal lands at the Alturas Indian Rancheria and the XL Ranch in Modoc County, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

At both sites, law enforcement seized a total of at least 12,000 marijuana plants and over 100 pounds of processed marijuana. Other than contraband marijuana and items of evidentiary value, no tribal property was seized, and no federal charges are pending.

David Nutt, a former government adviser on drugs, has written an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron calling on the Government to reconsider planned legislation that will ban all 'legal highs'.

The proposed Psychoactive Substances Bill has already been criticised by the advisory council on the misuse of drugs (ACMD), a body Professor Nutt chaired until 2009, which fears the blanket ban is unworkable.

Professor Nutt has often been outspoken over government policy on drugs.

He is among more than 40 academics, campaigners and professionals to have signed the letter, reproduced below:

Dear Prime Minister,

EUREKA- It's all about marijuana at the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.

The California Cannabis Voice Humboldt proposed Land Use Ordinance will go before the supervisors during the afternoon session.

Ellis County, Kansas (TFC) – Ellis County, Kansas Helps City of Hays Police Officer Facilitate Kidnapping of Young Girl from Her Arizona Mother.

“The most important part of my life is my daughter. All I have ever wanted is to make sure she has a good life, good lessons,  access to the world as she needs and wants and to be there for her as long as possible”.

Police say more than $6 million worth of cannabis was pulled off the streets when they charged six people and seized more than 900 plants from houses across the ACT. 

Raids of eight rental properties uncovered the most sophisticated grow house network in the capital's history and disrupted a highly sophisticated drug syndicate that had operated in the ACT for up to six months, ACT Policing said. 

A cannabis crop seized from a Kaleen grow house.Photo: ACT Policing

This morning (July 15) at 11 a.m. Health Canada held a conference call with medical marijuana producers to say oil can now be used.

“This is a big thing for a lot of Canadian families,” said Sebastien St-Louis, CEO of Hydropothecary, who was in on the call. “Medical marijuana has just gotten a little bit more medical today.”

Among the Canadian families affected is the McKnights of West Carleton. Mandy has fought for years for her six-year-old son to have the legal right to ingest medical marijuana in ways other than smoking.

“Gosh, I just got wind of it. I’m shocked but in a good way,” she said from her parents’ home in Newfoundland. “I thought with the election coming that they would sit on it. How amazing is that?”