North Dakota voters overwhelmingly approved the legalization of medical marijuana, and lawmakers are grappling with launching the program. But patients are about to learn that legalization does not mean insurance will cover the cost.

Major health insurers in North Dakota have said they will not provide coverage for medical marijuana, which voters approved in the November election by a margin of almost 64 percent, citing what they say is inadequate evidence of its effectiveness.

“We don’t cover it in Minnesota nor will we in North Dakota,” said Greg Bury, senior manager for public relations at Medica. “We don’t believe the efficacy has yet been established.”

It’s been less than one month since Marc Emery, the man known as the Prince of Pot, came to Montreal to open cannabis dispensaries.

Another man is now on a mission to make his mark in the medical marijuana world by opening three cannabis clinics in the Montreal area.

But it’s an operation the Quebec College of Physicians is calling illegal.

“They call themselves clinics but it’s not really a medical clinic, it’s a providing centre to cannabis,” Dr. Yves Robert from the Quebec College of Physicians said.

But the man behind the new cannabis clinics insists he has nothing to hide.

Several bills pre-filed in 2017 legislature.

Several bills filed by Texas lawmakers would decriminalize marijuana in the state, or at least allow it for medical reasons.

The 2017 session begins Tuesday.

"I believe Texas is at a tipping point where we're seeing the rest of the country having a sensible marijuana policy,” said Shaun McAlister of Arlington, the leader of DFW NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Eight states have now legalized marijuana possession. Some 28 allow it to be used for medicinal purposes. 

But critics, like recently retired Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics agent Corky Schalchlin of Frisco, don’t see any changes coming.

The cannabis flower is a curious specimen. While not what most people would picture when they think of a flower, this is the common name for the part of the cannabis plant used for smoking.

Comprised of small dense nubs, the flowers are frosted with hair-like crystalline structures called trichomes. This is the “business end” of the plant and thousands of different strains of cannabis are selectively bred to display a range of different profiles: effect, potency, flavor and color. The different strains will also have flowers that are different in appearance, some shorter and fatter, some longer or skinnier, and some in different hues. Experts – like your budtender – can tell certain attributes of the cannabis based on the flower’s appearance.

Medicinal Genomics and Courtagen Life Sciences today announced it has signed a co-promotion agreement with the 

I will enter an experiment: a politician can take my usual cocktail of drugs for a week and I’ll take medical cannabis and let’s see which of us comes out in the best shape

For almost 50 years now I’ve suffered from a debilitating, often crippling and painful condition called Still’s Disease, a form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis which strikes children. I contracted the disease at 12 years of age. When I search for an image for the condition I imagine “a hard winter of the bones”.

The marijuana market was nearly as large as the opiate market in 2016 and resulted in 0 overdose deaths.  By the end of 2017, 29 states and the District of Columbia will allow legal sales of marijuana, 8 of these states allow recreational marijuana sales.  In 2016, the national market for marijuana was nearly $7 billion, according to Arcview Market Research Group.   The opioid market was slightly larger at $10 billion in the US last year.

It looks like 2017 is the year that marijuana legalization finally takes off — a full three years after Guam voters approved the legal use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

During the waning days of the 33rd Guam Legislature, senators passed Bill 343-33, which provides for the rules and regulations of the medicinal marijuana program. Gov. Eddie Calvo then allowed the bill to lapse into law.

Calvo, however, vetoed a related piece of legislation, Bill 344, which would have allowed qualified patients or caregivers to grow marijuana at home for medicinal use.

Arkansas and Florida start moving toward voter-approved medical marijuana systems, Massachusetts activists push for greater patient access, and more.

It took me awhile to perfect the cookie recipe. I experimented with ingredients: Blueberry, Strawberry, Sour Diesel, White Widow, Bubba Kush, AK-47 – all strains of cannabis, which I stored, mixed with glycerin, in meticulously labeled jars on a kitchen shelf. After the cookies finished baking, I’d taste a few crumbs and annotate the effects in a notebook. Often, I felt woozy. One variation put me to sleep. When I had convinced myself that a batch was OK, I’d give a cookie to my 9-year-old son.