EAST LANSING – Advocates of marijuana decriminalization, like East Lansing lawyer and activist Jeffrey Hank, are sometimes surprised at how far their efforts have come.

“That is quite an interesting picture of the times we live in, when sensible marijuana law reform is agreed on by everyone and is the least controversial subject on the ballot,” Hank wrote in an e-mail. “Fifteen or 20 years ago that would have been unthinkable.”

One of three proposals on the May 5 ballot for East Lansing voters would repeal the city’s marijuana laws and allow the use, possession and transfer of up to 1 ounce of the drug on private property by people 21 and older.

If the Florida Legislature fails to pass a medical marijuana bill this session the issue is almost certain to resurface as a proposed constitutional amendment in 2016. A similar amendment narrowly failed in 2014. However, it is widely believed that in a presidential election cycle (when Democrats in Florida turn out by 4-6 percent more than in non-presidential election cycles) a medical marijuana amendment will pass.

The real question may not be whether a medical marijuana amendment will pass (recent polls show medical marijuana is supported by 70 percent of Floridians) but whether such an amendment will impact the 2016 presidential election.

Civil servants will suggest the decriminalisation of the use of hard drugs as a way of tackling the Ministry of Justice’s budget woes when the new government takes power next month.

Officials are expecting the next Lord Chancellor to demand yet more spending cuts and revenue-raising measures to get one of the world’s most expensive legal systems under financial control.

HARRISBURG (CBS) — Medical marijuana legislation is advancing through the Pennsylvania legislature and the profile of the man leading the charge is not what most people would expect.

State Senator Mike Folmer, a Lebanon County Republican, is not just the sponsor of legislation to legalize medical marijuana, he is passionate about it. That passion, he says, comes from what he has learned about it.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Some observers say a North Dakota bill passed this legislative session that sets guidelines for industrial hemp production should make it easier to grow and may help create an industry for Indian tribes, although it could take a while to sort out federal policies.

Hemp can be used to make clothing, lotion and many other products, but growing it has been illegal under federal law because it is type of cannabis plant and looks like marijuana. Unlike marijuana, people can't get high on hemp.

The measure sponsored by Republican Rep. David Monson is meant to put the state in line with the new federal farm bill that allows hemp to be grown through state agriculture departments and college research stations.

With states legalizing marijuana by popular vote, some politicians, including Boston mayor Marty Walsh and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, are still calling marijuana a gateway drug.

Legalization? What legalization? Advocates may rightly be asking this question after the Oregon State Police requested a $3.9 million budget increase to go after marijuana.

The OSP wants the money for 2015-20176 to pay for 11 full-time troopers and detectives to go after pot, reports Aaron Mesh at Willamette Week.

Since that's in addition to the $1.3 million the state police already requested for a legal marijuana enforcement budget earlier this year, one can't help asking oneself, where are the savings in marijuana enforcement that supposedly come with "legalization"?

The state police have declined comment.

From left, Surrey teens Jordan Smith with twins Connor and Duncan Fesenmaier at the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20. The high school students were protesting the use and legalization or marijuana. Photograph by: Amy Reid , Surrey Now

VANCOUVER — There was a new voice at the annual 4/20 pot protest at the Vancouver Art Gallery this year: Three Surrey high school students who weren’t there to light up.

Wearing anti-pot T-shirts and sporting gas masks, twins Duncan and Connor Fesenmaier and Jordan Smith from Princess Margaret Secondary took the trek to Vancouver to protest the use of marijuana and spread their anti-legalization message.

As one man quite accurately dubbed them, they’re the “bud busters.”

One of the most important components of the marijuana industry is the dispensary. Since marijuana cannot be legally shipped through the post office, and since laws in most states are at best vague about delivery services, the best way to sell legal marijuana is in a building known as a dispensary.

In Europe, the legislation varied from one country to another. And the most stringent laws do not necessarily produce the best effects.

According to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), nearly one in two French smoked cannabis. However, France has one of the toughest laws on drug use, even so-called "soft" drugs. In Europe, laws differ. On one hand the countries that decriminalize, are tolerant, do not condemn. And conversely those which are very severe. Scientific studies are struggling to establish links between the laws in force and the actual consumption of drugs. If consumption is sometimes tolerated in different forms, the sale and cultivation of cannabis are of course mostly misdemeanors.

Countries that tolerate