The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved a measure that prevents the federal government from meddling with state medical marijuana programs, advocates said.

An amendment to the House version of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, prohibits the U.S. Justice Department — including the Drug Enforcement Administration — from using federal money to meddle with state laws that allow the farming and selling of medical marijuana, advocates said.

It was cannabis Wednesday in Congress, where lawmakers gave the strongest support yet for ending the country's laws prohibiting marijuana use.

In the strongest sign yet that deciders in Washington may soon be ready to undo federal marijuana prohibition, both Democrats and Republicans voted to approve three pro-cannabis budget amendments — and came very close to approving a fourth in support of recreational marijuana.

Bipartisan votes approved amendments forbidding Justice Department officials from interfering in state-legal medical cannabis operations, industrial hemp programs, and laws that allow citizens to access products high in less-psychoactive cannabis compound CBD (cannabidiol).

One of the most popular topics on the 2015 elections agenda is legalization and cannabis is by far the most widelyused illegal drug in the Canada. The interplay between potential legalization models and our current MMPR system isimportant because it will probably shape the direction legalization takes in Canada. Our federal system is unique globally and over one year later, has some important big name interests vested within.

True to their word, a group of young advocates for local liberalization of marijuana possession laws rolled into City Hall for Tuesday’s meeting of the Athens-Clarke County Commission, once again arguing for a “parallel ordinance” allowing police officers the discretion to determine whether someone found in possession of marijuana should simply be cited and fined, or arrested and taken to jail.

“We’re not going to give up,” one of the young people told commissioners Tuesday. Since March, the group, affiliated with the Athens Campaign for Access, Reform and Education — part of Georgia C.A.R.E., a group working to “end marijuana prohibition in Georgia” — has been a regular presence at the commission’s monthly voting meeting.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is leading a fight against legalizing marijuana.

As if Mayor Marty Walsh wasn’t already busy enough boosting the Olympics. Now he says he’d be willing to spend more precious time and political capital leading a fight against legalizing marijuana, too.

Let’s leave aside, for now, concerns over how thinly that would spread a mayor who already has plenty demanding his focus. Purely from a policy perspective, it’s the wrong fight to take on.

The ‘war on drugs’ does not work, as Cameron himself once said. The latest crackdown on legal highs such as poppers is madness

Although Alaska voted in favor of legalizing marijuana in November, it was still up to individual towns to decide whether or not possession of cannabis for any adult at least 21 years old would be legal.

Monday night, the North Pole city council met to decide the fate of marijuana in Santa Claus's hometown. And Santa himself showed up to weigh in.

Canadian police have smashed a mafia drug trafficking ring with the arrest of 19 alleged high-ranking members of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta criminal organization, officials said on Wednesday.

The operation in Toronto on Tuesday involving 260 officers was the culmination of a two-year investigation targeting “the highest levels” of the ’Ndrangheta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Taking out key players in the group has put a significant dent in its global criminal operations, the RCMP special forces enforcement unit added.

Delaware House lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation that would treat simple marijuana possession and personal use by adults like a traffic violation, replacing criminal penalties with civil fines.

The bill passed the House by a 24-14 vote, and now heads to the Senate. Gov. Jack Markell supports decriminalization. No House Republicans voted in favor of the legislation on Tuesday.

Some opponents said decriminalization would embolden drug dealers operating in a black market. Others say it could prevent police from initiating important searches on suspicion of simple marijuana possession.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a 2016 presidential candidate on the Democratic side, says he has smoked marijuana two times but that it “didn’t quite work” for him.

“I coughed a lot,” he said in an interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric. “I smoked marijuana twice — didn’t quite work for me.”

“It’s not my thing, but it is the thing of a whole lot of people,” he said. “And if you want to make the argument that maybe marijuana is less harmful to health than tobacco, I think you’d probably be making a correct argument. Some may disagree, but I think it’s probably true.”