The board chairman of the McLaughlin Research Institute floated an idea by lawmakers wrestling with medical marijuana legislation this session to have the facility be part of a program to test cannabis products.

In a March 15 email to some Great Falls legislators, Randy Gray said MRI could contract with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services to test the products and research cannabis addictive properties and ways to control them.

“The result would be efficient for Montana, effective for users of medical marijuana and helpful to stabilize and expand MRI’s science staff,” Gray states in his email that includes Democratic Rep. Tom Jacobson and GOP Sens. Brian Hoven and Ed Buttrey.

Global cannabis software and point of sales solutions company Guardian Data Software (GDS) has announced a partnership with Australian medical cannabis accelerator BuddingTech that will see the organisation act as an analytical engine and business consultancy for GDS clients, while working towards new research initiatives.

BuddingTech, a Sydney-based organisation which emerged in 2015, identifies startups working with cannabis technology and research, and looks to support them towards commercialising their ideas for the Asia Pacific medical cannabis market.

Besides the accelerator, BuddingTech also offers consultation services, and holds a medical cannabis resource database filled with surveys and analytical white paper reports.

Fiery rhetoric on marijuana legalization from Attorney General Jeff Sessions is prompting some states to preemptively act to limit federal power over local pot laws.

“They could start issuing a bunch of threat letters, they could begin raiding and arresting people in various states,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “While those things are definitely scary and would ruin any number of people’s lives and careers, that’s not going to stop the momentum in the industry.”

Marijuana advocates are starting another push to legalize medical marijuana here in the Gem State. 

The Idaho Medical Marijuana Association has started a petition that would ask lawmakers to make it legal for some patients to use marijuana. Organizers say the proposed bill would allow patients suffering from qualifying medical conditions, including chronic diseases, to use the drug and would need the OKfrom a doctor.The president behind the groups says she's worked with people in hospice care and understands the pain they go through. 

"For me, it's all about the patent and transforming people's life's to be easy," said Tesla Heidi Gillespie of the Idaho Medical Marijuana Association. "When people transform and 

Michigan has created the Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation to centralize all aspects of medical marijuana regulation, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs reports. 

The new bureau, housed in LARA, combines the existing oversight functions of the state's patient and caregiver registry with the newly established statutory requirements for medical marijuana facility licensing. 

"BMMR's organizational structure puts Michigan at the forefront of state medical marijuana regulation," LARA Director Shelly Edgerton said. "Many other states have various licenses and patient programs spread throughout different departments and agencies." 

The cost of doing business as a medical-marijuana provider in Ohio isn’t going to be cheap. And that’s probably a good thing.

State regulators organizing the infrastructure for what will be the state’s medical-marijuana regulating body have said that licenses for businesses involved in growing and selling marijuana under a law approved by state voters in 2016 will be more expensive than in many other states that allow medical marijuana.

The Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program plans to charge a $20,000 application fee and $180,000 license fee for larger growers, and a $2,000 application fee and $18,000 license fee for smaller growers.

Lakeland city staff has carved out about 1,000 acres of highway commercial and light industrial zoned areas that medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed to move into if ultimately approved by the City Commission.

Four of the seven city commissioners supported the staff's proposal in a meeting Friday, while others want to see some changes before it goes to the Planning and Zoning Board in May and the commission for a vote in June. 

Staff is proposing medical marijuana dispensaries:

• Be located within C-2 and I-1 zoned districts with 500-foot separation from schools, daycare centers, park and recreation centers, playgrounds, libraries, churches, synagogues and other houses of worship.

• Be limited in size to 4,000 square feet.

North Dakota legislators have approved changes to the state’s medical marijuana bill which was passed by voters last November and Gov. Burgum said he’ll sign it.

Senators approved regulations to the bill with a two-thirds majority vote.

Under the changes, North Dakota can have up to two growers and eight dispensaries statewide.

The organization in charge of the medical marijuana operation can add more if needed.

Patient fees were dropped from $200 to just $50 a year.

“We’re trying to get medical into the hands of patients as soon as we possibly can without compromising the safety of the product and avoiding diversions into hands of people illegally,” said Kenan Bullinger, the Medical Marijuana Initiative director.

City councilors Gladys Lebron-Martinez and Rebecca Lisi will hold a Ward 1 neighborhood meeting on April 20 at 6 p.m. at Kelly School on a proposal to put a medical marijuana facility at 28 Appleton St.

Representatives of GTI Massachusetts NP Corp., which wants to open the medical marijuana cultivation and processing facility, will be available at the meeting at 216 West St. to answer questions, said Lebron-Martinez, the Ward 1 representative on the City Council.

A grey-haired woman in her early 60s daintily lifts small trays topped with different varieties of marijuana to her nose, sniffing each of them carefully.

“Which one would you recommend for someone with medical issues?” she asks salesman Paul Monot, co-founder of the DrGreen shop in western Switzerland.

Posters of bright green cannabis plants advertise its wares, which, like those sold openly in a growing number of shops across Switzerland, are completely legal.

There is a catch however: They won’t make you high.

“There is no psychotropic effect of our weed,” says Monot, at his store in Lausanne.