Before it even began, the monthly meeting of the People of Parkside Sunset had devolved into an angry crowd of seniors shouting in Cantonese.

“No invaders! No invaders! No invaders!” yelled out 100 or so Sunset District residents crammed into a humid room inside the Taraval Police Station earlier this month.

Their target? Floyd Huen, a Bay Area geriatrician who once led Oakland’s Highland Hospital. Huen, 70, has made it his late-in-life mission to spread awareness of the benefits of medical marijuana among the group he has found most hostile to it: elderly Asian Americans.

People taking psychoactive medications and drugs for conditions such as chronic pain tend to prefer medical cannabis to other drugs, including sedatives, opioids, and antidepressants, a study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy has found.

Oxford University will be at the forefront of a multimillion-pound research program, which hopes to help develop new therapies for acute and chronic conditions by examining the effects of medical cannabis.

The oldest university in England will be teaming up with private equity company, Kingsley Capital Partners who will provide up to £10 million ($12.36 million) in initial investment, which will be funded through its new biopharmaceutical firm Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCT).

The partnership is expected to bring together Kingsley's financial backing and Oxford's clinical expertise and research in immunology, neuroscience and cancer, to find ways of developing new treatments for those suffering with pain, cancer and inflammatory disease.

It has become a highly-charged emotional issue, debated in the Dáil and played out on social media with prominent campaigns attracting national headlines.

There is a growing clamour for greater access to medicinal cannabis for patients with debilitating conditions, and in particular children suffering from certain types of epilepsy.

Health Minister Simon Harris has come under intense pressure to make certain cannabis treatments more widely available.

Last November, the Dáil passed a bill tabled by People before Profit TD Gino Kenny to make cannabis available in Ireland for medicinal use, after the Government said it would not oppose the legislation.

Over the past year, much has been written about the horrific consequences of the Philippines’ war on drugs, led by its frankly psychopathic president, Rodrigo Duterte.

Thousands have died, gunned down in the streets by police and masked vigilantes, simply for having anything to do with illegal drugs. The reign of terror that has engulfed the country has turned the backstreets and slums of Manila into a war zone, leaving everybody wondering just how it will all end.

This legislative session, a record 11 proposals addressed the use of cannabis. Most of them never got a hearing, but two are still moving through the legislature and could become Indiana’s first medical cannabis laws.

Indiana is one of six states that have not passed any form of medical cannabis legislation, including CBD.

CBD stands for cannabidiol, also known as “hemp oil.” It is a non-psychoactive cannabis, with low tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC – so it can’t get people high.

For the past seven years, senators have sought Dr. Trent Jones’ testimony on the topic. He spoke from California last January, via Skype.

Company is developing medical grade vaporizers and extracts meant to treat central nervous system disorders.

Kanabo Research, a Tel Aviv-based medical cannabis company, is aiming its vaporization formulations and devices at medical patients instead of the recreational users more commonly associated with vaporization. The company is closing its seed round funding and launching its initial product offerings at the CannaTech summit this week.

It’s been less than three years since Nevada lawmakers put in place regulations allowing for the legal growth and sale of medical marijuana, and the budding industry has done more than just widely expand its customer base — it’s also become a player in the world of Nevada campaign finance.

Marijuana dispensaries, owners and growers gave $75,000 to legislators during the 2016 election cycle, with nearly half of the donations — $31,550 — going to Democratic Sen. Tick Segerblom, who in 2013 authored a bill establishing regulatory framework for medical marijuana dispensaries and is one of the industry’s biggest advocates.

HempStaff, a medical marijuana staffing and training agency, is hosting two Medical Marijuana Dispensary Agent Training Classes in Maryland. There are two sessions to choose from at each location: 8:00am-12:00pm or 1:30pm-5:30pm.

The Baltimore event will be held on Saturday, March 25th at the Doubletree Baltimore Airport 890 Elkridge Landing Road,? Linthicum Heights, MD 21090.

The City of North Battleford is laying the groundwork for a medical marijuana facility to come to town.

The city is in the process of changing zoning bylaws to allow medical marijuana facilities to set up shop in it’s heavy industrial neighbourhood.

“We wanted to make sure that if there was ever to be interest in a development that it was being done in the right part of the city and that, to us, would be the heavy industrial area,” Mayor Ryan Bater said. “It just makes us prepared and, like any economic development project, we want to be prepared.”

The bylaw amendment was considered after a request from a developer, but there’s no development currently planned.

Bater said council is expected to pass the bylaw amendment later this month.