One woman says medical marijuana gave her a second chance at life, but many others aren't as fortunate.

Some believe it could help with opioid addiction and they're pushing for a change at the Illinois Capitol.

"I couldn't get up off the floor, so that's why I thought, 'This is it. This is the day I'm going to die,' and I crawled upstairs so when the hospital said it's a withdrawal, I was shocked."

Two years ago, Angela Goering had no idea she'd become addicted to opioid pain medication. She had been taking them nearly a decade.

"I've never done street drugs, so I was naive."

The grandmother and mother of four is living with a rare terminal disease giving her just five years to life.

Picture the stereotypical pot smoker: young, dazed and confused. Marijuana has long been known for its psychoactive effects, which can include cognitive impairment. But new research published this week in Nature Medicine suggests the drug might affect older users very differently than young ones—at least in mice. Instead of impairing learning and memory as it does in young people, the drug appears to reverse age-related declines in the cognitive performance of elderly mice.

According to a new poll by SurveyMonkey and BudTrader.com, a medical marijuana marketplace, 87 percent of 152 NFL players support the use of medical marijuana in states where it's already legal. CBSN's Reena Ninan has the story.

THE NSW Government will expanding the medicinal cannabis trial for chemotherapy patients to seven more hospitals across NSW – including to Port Macquarie Base and Coffs Harbour health campuses.

A number of cannabis products have recently been imported from overseas in the hope of helping some of our sickest patients, removing a major barrier to accessing medicinal cannabis.

Despite having legalized medical marijuana twenty years ago, California has left its MMJ industry largely unregulated. That is all set to change, as the California Bureau of Marijuana Control has released draft versions of regulations that will tightly regulate the industry starting next year. This week, the bureau released a series of draft regulations that will govern how medical marijuana providers must test their products.

Health officials in Colorado have launched a new call center for people who have health questions related to marijuana use.

Pharmacists, nurses and toxicology experts from Denver Health’s Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center will be available to answer questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“These medical experts can answer questions about occupational safety hazards for marijuana industry workers as well as questions about pesticides, toxins, additives, ingredients and contaminants in marijuana and cannabidiol (CBD) products,” officials said in a statement released to the media.

The number is 877.741.3777.

The line is not meant for anyone experiencing life-threatening emergencies, officials said. If you need immediate medical assistance, call 911.

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) oversees the medical marijuana cardholder registry for patients and regulates medical marijuana dispensaries, processors and grow sites.

Their role includes administering the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act by overseeing the registration, database, tracking and reporting requirements for patients, growers, processors and dispensaries.

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program is part of the Center for Health Protection.

The Cannabis Topicals Panel during this past weekend’s Cannabis Health Summit featured founders from a few of the industry’s most respected topical manufacturers.

Specifically, we got to hear from:

• Didi Davis – Sweet Releaf
• Maya Elisabeth – Whoopi & Maya
• Dahlia Mertens – Mary’s Medicinals

Most people are still quite new to cannabis topicals and have a lot of important questions. And so we really appreciated this deep-dive curiosity conversation with some of the top experts in the field.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has been ordered to return more than $100,000 seized from a medical marijuana businessman and his family, 15 months after drug agents raided the company and didn’t charge anyone with a crime.

Superior Court Judge Tamila E. Ipema issued the order late Friday, almost six weeks after lawyers representing San Diego businessman James Slatic argued that the money must be returned.

“Investigations have been ongoing since January 2016 and there is no indication … that criminal charges are going to be filed in this case in the near future,” the judge wrote.

According to Ellen Brown, “the health benefits of cannabis are now well established. It is a cheap, natural alternative effective for a broad range of conditions, and the non-psychoactive form known as hemp has thousands of industrial uses. At one time, cannabis was one of the world’s most important crops. 

There have been no recorded deaths from cannabis overdose in the US, compared to about 30,000 deaths annually from alcohol abuse (not counting auto accidents), and 100,000 deaths annually from prescription drugs taken as directed. Yet cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance (“a deadly dangerous drug with no medical use and high potential for abuse”), illegal to be sold or grown in the US.”