The number of women using medical marijuana to treat their pain is up drastically over the past five years, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The report says 25 percent of women in 2012 used medical marijuana compared to more than 37 percent as of May of this year.

Wendy Cardona, a stay at home mom of two is looking to treat her chronic pain.

"With the pain that I have, it's hard for me to play with them. I have to pause on them which they don't understand," Cardona said.

She's tried other medications, both over the counter and prescription, but so far nothing has helped. That's why she decided to try medical marijuana.

The first medical marijuana production deal struck in Louisiana is expected to bring the state’s flagship university at least $3.4 million over five years.

In its bid offer, the contractor agreed to pay that amount or 10 percent of gross receipts, whichever is higher, to the LSU Ag Center for permission to grow medical marijuana.

The LSU Board of Supervisors gave its blessing to the arrangement Thursday, authorizing System President F. King Alexander to work out details of a final contract with GB Sciences Inc.

The AgCenter selected the Las Vegas-based company to manage the growing operations from seven potential vendors who applied.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has approved what may become the Island’s first facility for growing, testing and packaging medical marijuana.

Geoff Rose, owner of Patient Centric of Martha’s Vineyard, plans to share space in a 7,200-square-foot building on Dr. Fisher Road in West Tisbury. The building itself, planned by Big Sky Tents owner Jim Eddy, was approved by the commission in 2010 but has yet to be built.

During a public review this spring, residents raised concerns about increased traffic on Dr. Fisher Road, and the site’s proximity to the West Tisbury School 2,400 feet to the south. But the final plans on Thursday passed with little debate.

A young boy by the name of Landon Riddle was diagnosed with Leukemia back in 2012 at just two years old. He was given just a ten percent chance of even making it through the night, but he did.

Landon underwent chemotherapy as most people do and while he lived, he suffered. He was not able to eat for weeks at a time and lost fifty percent of his weight, He was always in pain and his family knew something needed to be done, they just were not quite sure what that was yet.

The United States Senate is an intentionally slow moving body when it comes to passing laws, but the nation's upper legislative chamber is even slower when it comes to catching up with the popular will of the American people. That's especially been on display when it comes to the nation's pot laws, but now there's a growing core group of senators who are vocally crying out for the federal government to catch up with the states, at least when it comes to medical marijuana.

Poland's lower house of parliament, which is controlled by the conservatives, on Thursday voted to make medicinal marijuana legal under certain circumstances.

The EU member follows in the steps of the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, as well as 23 US states and Uruguay, which in 2013 became the first country to make cannabis entirely legal.

Four hundred and forty lawmakers voted in favour—with two against and one abstention—of legislation to allow prescription-only cannabis-based medicine to be made at pharmacies using imported ingredients.

The law, which still needs to be approved by the senate and the Polish president to come into force, excludes the recreational use of cannabis.

Addyson Benton has come home.

To celebrate, her parents Heather and Adam Benton threw a bash June 17 for Addyson’s sixth birthday at EnterTrainment Junction, with pizza, cake, presents, grandparents, relatives and friends. Addyson and a young pal walked hand in hand around the venue, with Addyson smiling and pointing at the lights and train sounds.

“She’s been the ultimate factor on every decision,” said Heather Benton, brushing a hand over her daughter’s hair. “Her well-being is the only thing that matters.”

It appears the deadly synthetic opiate fentanyl is now being mixed with marijuana in some Ohio communities – sparking some concern that this dangerous trend could soon spread across more of the United States.

What started out as a rumor last week on social media networks has been confirmed as gospel. Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said during a recent press conference with Senator Rob Portman that she has seen some cases in which fentanyl, a hardcore painkiller with a potency up to 100 times greater than morphine, has been mixed with marijuana.

The Canadian government must make it easier to study cannabis, say the country’s top cannabis academics and public health researchers in an open letter to politicians.

“Under widespread global prohibition, cannabis research has been limited by the criminalization and stigmatization of cannabis use and users, leading to substantial gaps in knowledge around the harms and benefits of both medical and non-medical cannabis,” reads the letter sent to federal decision-makers on the letterhead of the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use.