Colorado’s legalization of marijuana has prompted a suit before the Supreme Court and a request for President Obama to take a position. Here’s why he should side with the suit by Oklahoma and Nebraska.

During his time in office, President Obama has worked hard to prevent drug smuggling into the United States. Two months ago, the Supreme Court asked for the views of his administration on another type of trafficking of a federally banned drug: the transport of marijuana out of Colorado, where its use was made legal for adults last year, into neighboring states.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) - The Legislature's failure to expand Iowa's medical marijuana law has some parents of sick children looking to Minnesota.

Area lawmakers who worked to pass the proposed legislation suggested some Iowans may relocate to nearby states to access medicinal marijuana. Medical marijuana will be legal in limited form in Minnesota beginning July 1.

Some Cedar Falls families confirmed they're considering their options, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://bit.ly/1MsWswE ) reported.

"Obviously, they have all these good things about their bill, but it's proximity. So, you just gave yourselves competition. Minnesota moved forward. You chose to stay stagnant," said Brienna Decker.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead is creating a council to gauge the effects of marijuana usage in the state ahead of a legalization initiative that could go before voters next year.

Mead announced Tuesday he's putting together a marijuana impact assessment council. He wants it to report to the public on effects of marijuana before the Legislature convenes early next year.

Activists this spring filed initial paperwork to start a petition process in Wyoming that could put a medical marijuana legalization measure before voters in the 2016 general election.

When Colorado-based ganjapreneur Jayson Emo saw the viral video of police raiding an unpermitted medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, Calif. — a video that included footage of a female police officer saying she wanted to kick dispensary manager Marla James (a 54-year-old wheelchair-bound amputee and marijuana activist) in her “nub” — he knew he had to do something.

Screenshot of video showing Santa Ana, Calif., police raiding unpermitted medical marijuana dispensary Sky High Holistic.

WILLIAMS, Ore. — Forty-two years after Oregon became the first state to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, the state is taking its first steps along a road leading to state-licensed stores selling limited amounts of it to anyone over 21.

"Oregon has long been a pioneer on sensible marijuana policies," said Anthony Johnson, chief petitioner on Measure 91, which on Wednesday makes Oregon the fourth state to adopt laws legalizing recreational use of cannabis for people old enough to drink.

He added though that he doesn't expect much increased demand for it.

Smoking it in public is illegal, but in Portland police are discouraging residents from calling 911 to report smokers.

A farmer has admitted growing cannabis plants worth £109,000 because "they made more money" than rearing chickens.

Edward James, 68, was found with hundreds of plants on his land at Bratton Fleming, Barnstaple, Devon.

He told police growing the Class B drug was "more profitable than chickens", Exeter Crown Court heard.

Recorder Mr Rufus Taylor adjourned the case until 30 July, and ordered pre-sentence reports be prepared by the Probation Service.

Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said in light of James' guilty plea to producing cannabis, his not guilty plea to a second charge of possession with intent to supply had been accepted.

Gareth Evans, defending, said James is in poor health and has strong personal mitigation.

In California, the race is on to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016. Multiple organizations are pushing for legalization, and the field is slowly becoming as crowded as the Republican field for presidential candidates.

The most recent entry into the fray of marijuana initiatives is the Responsible Use Act, which was submitted by the grassroots team of Chad and Marinda Hanes. Supporters of the ballot initiative now have 180 days to collect 365,880 valid signatures in order to get on the ballot for next year.

Earlier this year, Indonesia executed 14 people, including Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, for drug offences. President Joko Widodo portrayed the executions as the ultimate weapon in an expansive “war on drugs” deployed to protect the country’s young generation from an  alleged “national drug emergency”.

But his policy is harming the very people he claims he wishes to protect.

A problematic approach

Liberal Democrat leadership hopeful Norman Lamb has said that more than half of current government ministers “almost certainly” tried illegal drugs in their younger years.

Speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Public Policy Research thinktank on Wednesday evening, the MP for North Norfolk described the UK’s current drugs laws as pathetic and a “monumental failure of public policy”.

“We have the crazy situation that, almost certainly, more than half of this government – half of the government ministers in a Conservative government – will have taken drugs in their younger years,” said Lamb, a former care minister under the coalition government.

According to a recent poll by the Levada Center, 88 percent of Russians over the age of 18 have never taken drugs outside medical prescription. Only 17 percent know someone who has used non-prescribed drugs, with an overwhelming 80 percent answering in the negative.

It is thus unsurprising that among this demographic, which has limited first-hand experience of drug use, 69 percent would favor drug testing in schools, 72 percent would approve of criminal charges against drug users and 75 percent are against legalization of "light" drugs such as cannabis.

It is fair to point out that Russia's experience with drug use is a fairly recent problem. Apocryphally, there was no sex in the Soviet Union. But there was also very little in the way of drugs or rock 'n' roll, too.