Sometimes when Cara* is waiting for her carer to return from the tinny house, her mind begins to wander.

What's happened to them? Why are they taking longer then usual? Are they banged up, frightened, at the local cop shop?

She worries that this time their luck has run out, as they delve inexpertly into the world of drugs and gangs to get her medicine: cannabis.

Cara suffers from the autoimmune disease lupus and complications from a stroke.

She gets around in an electric wheelchair, which she manoeuvres with her shaky, twisted and swollen hands. The cannabis, which she takes as a capsule of oil or baked into cookies, steadies them and her nerves and frees her from pain.

The marijuana industry is growing like a weed. Last year, legal weed sales grew by 34%, according to cannabis research firm ArcView, and by 2021, legal sales (which includes medical and recreational pot) are expected to exceed $22 billion. Investment firm Cowen & Co. has an even more bullish forecast on legal weed, calling for $50 billion in sales by 2026. These estimates are what have revenue-hungry state governments, as well as investors, drooling with excitement.

Medical marijuana is legal in Georgia. Kind of.

Though the state passed a measure legalizing medical cannabis in 2015, it remains illegal to buy, sell, or grow the plant. That's why Georgia Rep. Allen Peake, a conservative Christian who sponsored the legalization bill, runs an underground "distribution network" to get the medicine to registered patients throughout the state.

State lawmakers begin their final scheduled week of the session next week, and among the high-profile bills expected to attract plenty of attention is the long-delayed House bill to legalize marijuana.

Bill H. 170 has been stuck in the Human Services Committee for weeks, referred there suddenly after the first floor vote suddenly appeared at risk of defeat.

Late Friday, the committee voted to dislodge H. 170, sending it on to the House floor in a 5-4-2 vote.

Committee Chairwoman Ann Pugh, a South Burlington Democrat, said her panel added language to address some concerns about youth access to marijuana -- explicitly prohibiting pot near schools, and all public consumption.

Mexico's Lower House of Congress passed a bill on Friday to legalize the use of marijuana and cannabis for medical and scientific needs, a step closer to outright legalization in a country long scarred by warring drug cartels.

The bill sailed through the Senate in December and will now be sent to President Enrique Pena Nieto, who is expected to sign it.

"The ruling eliminates the prohibition and criminalization of acts related to the medicinal use of marijuana and its scientific research, and those relating to the production and distribution of the plant for these purposes," the Lower House said in a statement on its website.

The NFL has come under a sizable amount of scrutiny of late over its overreliance on prescription painkillers, with many calling for drastic changes in the way teams treat player injuries. Among the ideas being bandied about is the use of medicinal marijuana, which the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine says can be “an effective treatment for chronic pain in adults.”

There’s just one problem with that: Marijuana is banned in the NFL, with players facing fines and suspensions for multiple drug-test violations. And based on what Roger Goodell told ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” on Friday, that isn’t going to change anytime soon, at least if he has anything to say about it.

A medical marijuana oil program approved by the Iowa Legislature might not offer much help to patients with qualifying medical conditions, but advocates say it's at least a step in the right direction.

The measure approved by lawmakers in the final hours of the legislative session Saturday would expand a little-used program now only available to people with epilepsy. If signed by Gov. Terry Branstad, the law would allow the limited production of cannabis oil at two locations in Iowa and legalize its use for an additional eight conditions.

Despite the expansion, medical marijuana advocates said the decision to cap the level of the active ingredient and limit the means of ingestion means the program has limited value.

When the Pennsylvania legislature last year passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana, it did so largely under the impression that dispensaries wouldn’t sell the drug in its plant form, but only in infused oils, pills and ointments.

By next year though, when dispensaries begin opening across the state, that may not be the case. A little-known loophole in the law could allow for dispensaries to distribute plant-form marijuana meant for vaporization.

P.E.I.'s medicinal marijuana company is adding cannabis oil to its product lines.

Edwin Jewell, president of Canada's Island Garden, said not everyone who uses medicinal marijuana wants to smoke or vape it.

Cannabis oil allows them to put it in their food or drink.

'There's still a stigma attached, I think, in many parts of Canada with people who smoke cannabis.' - Edwin Jewell

"I think the benefit to oils is people can then take their medicinal cannabis in a way that is a little more discreet," Jewell said.

"There's still a stigma attached, I think, in many parts of Canada with people who smoke cannabis."