The results make a compelling case for legalization.

As opioid abuse continues to be a national discussion, a new study has revealed less people are hospitalized for opioid abuse in states where medical marijuana is legalized.

'High costs currently push many patients to seek alternative options through illegal avenues'.

Conventional pills did little to ease Jill Grindle's PTSD and sleep disorder, but within months of turning to medical marijuana the Calgary mother says she was sleeping through the night.

Now she has another worry.

"It's costing a pretty penny," she said. "So what I do is I under-medicate greatly. I scrimp and I save and I only use it very sparingly."

Like most Canadians, Grindle's standard insurance plan doesn't cover legally prescribed cannabis. For Grindle that adds up to $1,200 a month if she were to use her full four-gram daily allowance, so she gets by on one gram a day.

”I don’t want to break the law, but I don’t want to bury my eight-year-old child.”

They are the words of a Lake Heights mum that have struck a chord with tens of thousands of people across the country and beyond.

Yvonne Cooper’s eight-year-old daughter, Sienna, suffers from severe seizures and she fears her little girl could die without legal access to medicinal cannabis.

Last week, in a last-ditch plea for help, Ms Cooper launched an online petition that called on state and federal health ministers to fast-track Sienna’s “life-saving access” to the drug. 

Ms Cooper’s change.org petition, titled “Our baby girl is dying in front of us - please help”, has since captured the attention of supporters across the world. 

Amy Turncliff, a mother of three, is concerned.

Her children are 10, 8 and 4 years old. In November, voters approved legislation that made recreational marijuana legal in Massachusetts. However, a lot of legislation is still coming down the pipeline.

Turncliff, a neuroscientist who lives in Ashland, thinks a lot is at stake. She and her husband are worried their children will grow up in a culture where “marijuana use is treated like alcohol use and is believed to be a rite of passage.”

“I’m not even sure 21 is the right cut-off age,” she said, referring to the current legal age for owning, using and home-growing marijuana. She thinks it should be higher.

Cannabis is commonly relied upon as a sleep aid, and those using it in this manner overwhelmingly believe it to more effective than their OTC remedy.

So long to counting sheep. Cannabiz Consumer Group’s CannaUse™ findings reveal that both internal analgesics (otc pain medications) and sleep aids are feeling the pain of substitution effect from legal cannabis more than other OTC categories, such as cold and flu medicines. Cannabiz Consumer Group (C2G) leveraged its highly successful CannaUse™ study to understand how legal cannabis impacts over-the-counter (OTC) medications.

The study found that:

Marijuana advocates in West Virginia are celebrating after the state senate voted to pass a bill that would legalize and regulate the use of medical marijuana in the Mountain State. After surviving two committee assignments, and being amended to allow home cultivation by registered patients, Senate Bill 386, sponsored by Senator Richard Ojeda, passed out of the full Senate by a considerable margin of 28-6.

​California native Malcolm Mirage's dream was to own a legal cannabis dispensary. For years, he had grown marijuana and sold it on the black market, while working a day job as a personal trainer. But in his late 20s, Mirage decided it was time to jump into the growing legal industry — before it got too crowded — and build his expertise into a sustainable, above-board business.

In order to open up that business, which he calls Mirage Medicinal, he needed to come up with $500,000 in startup capital, so Mirage began to scale up his operation, expanding into lucrative markets in other states.

Like many states, Illinois is in deep financial trouble. Looking at the latest audit,  its black hole has deepened to $9.6bn (£7.6bn) and, according to the state’s financial comptroller, the books are “abysmal”.

But there could be salvation at hand if it becomes the first state in the midwest to legalise and tax the recreational use of marijuana. Two Democrats in the state legislature have introduced a bill to change the law, arguing this could raise as much as $700m a year.

Should the bill go through, it would bring the number of states where recreational pot is legal up to nine. If you throw in Washington DC, then more than 80m Americans would be free to enjoy cannabis.

This week on The Plus Factor, we’re talking about an herbal ingredient earning a blazing reputation in the wellness world: marijuana.

Remember when cannabis had a not-so-healthy image? (Think red eyes and munchies.) Well, those days are fading fast, as the potent plant’s healing powers have started to attract some serious interest from wellness brands in all categories—food, beverage, beauty, and beyond.