As of Wednesday, chronic pain is a qualifying medical cannabis condition in New York.

The chair of the Florida Senate's Health Policy Committee says they're at least two weeks away from voting on a medical marijuana bill.

The committee held a workshop on Wednesday as it began to consider five bills to implement Amendment 2. Sen. Dana Young, a Tampa Republican, says there isn't a consensus on a framework for what might come out of the committee.

Amendment 2 was approved by 71 percent of voters last November. It took effect on Jan. 3 and allows higher-strength marijuana to be used for a wider list of medical ailments.

The Legislature and Department of Health have until July to revise current rules and must implement them by October. The Legislature's 60-day session ends on May 5.

I was asked to speak on a panel this morning to give the case for cannabis legalisation, and found it a useful exercise in tidying and focusing my thoughts. My overarching point was that, if it does happen, it’s probably going to be because of a fundamental shift in public opinion of the kind that’s taking place in some parts of the United States, so at this stage it’s most useful to consider how we might want to approach decriminalisation or full legalisation. Still, the broad case for cannabis legalisation is worth making, and I tried to do so.

It will come as no surprise to those who enjoy the odd spliff but cannabis really could help you deal with stress.

Scientists have identified a chemical called cannabidiol which they hope to extract from marijuana plants to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias. The idea is that it helps calm you down, without you having to get high all the time.

Tackles the fear

Anxiety is driven by fear – research suggests that cannabidiol dilutes fear by changing the brain’s activity.

“Cannabis is best known for the ‘high’ caused by the chemical Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). But it contains many other chemicals with potential medicinal properties, including cannabidiol,” said Dr Carl Stevenson, of the University of Nottingham.

More than a year after the Australian government legalized medical cannabis, patients in South Australia are still waiting for a scheme to effectively access medicine.

One lawmaker, Greens MP Tammy Franks, has criticized the government’s handling of the access issue as “offensive” and “a joke”—and she’s now leading the charge for reform.

Insomnia sufferers often swear by a puff of marijuana before bed. Now an Israeli company is helping to medicalize the practice with an inhaler that delivers a stable and controlled dose of a cannabis formula that lasts through the night.

i.can.sleep is a joint venture of iCAN:Israel-Cannabis, a group building out the medical marijuana industry in Israel and CannRx, a U.S. corporation that develops medical applications for cannabis.

The joint venture was announced at CannaTech, a conference on medical marijuana happening in Tel Aviv from March 20-22.

“You take a puff or two depending on the dosage and in ten minutes you will be drowsy enough to sleep,” said William Levine of CannRx.

Chilliwack is now home to the first of “many” cannabis medical clinics in B.C. run by a publicly traded corporation that already has operations from Newfoundland to Alberta.

The House on Monday rejected a bill to ban the manufacture or sale of medical marijuana in food or drink.

House Bill 1392 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Springdale, received 52 votes in support and 40 against. Because it would change a voter-approved constitutional amendment, it required a two-thirds vote for passage, or at least 67 votes in the 100-member House.

The bill would allow a patient authorized to use medical marijuana to put the drug in his or her own food, or have it done by an approved caregiver, but dispensaries could not sell the drug in food.

Yuval Landschaft, the director of the Healthy Ministry's Medical Cannabis Unit, shared this estimate with the participants of CannaTech, Israel's Int'l Summit for Accelerating Cannabis Innovation.

Medical-grade cannabis products will likely be available to Israeli patients within the coming year, a Health Ministry official declared on Monday.

"I believe in the near future we are going to see the dream come true – my dream, your dream, the patient’s dream,” Yuval Landschaft, director of the Health Ministry's Medical Cannabis Unit, said at a Tel Aviv conference. “I believe that in less than a year we are going to have medical-grade cannabis products."

Market analysts are predicting every state will have a medicinal or recreational marijuana law on the books by 2021.

Marijuana could be legal across the entire United States by 2021, according to the latest research by GreenWave Advisors.

Last year, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada joined Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska in legalizing marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. In addition, more than half the nation has legalized the leaf for medicinal purposes.