We know many folks in the marijuana nation won't shed a tear for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which has a record of cracking down on medical marijuana in California.

But its latest move to track marijuana extracts with a new code number has sent unnecessary shock waves through the pot industry. It was interpreted by some cannabis publications as a lone-wolf move by the DEA to create law on its own and criminalize beloved cannabidiol (CBD), a medicinal oil that does not get patients high.

Even as more states move to legalize marijuana use, the plant’s genetic makeup remains a relative mystery.

“It’s still quite an undeveloped species from the perspective of genetics,” Canadian botanist Jonathan Page told Vocativ. 

Page published the first paper with a draft sequence of a single cannabis strain, but federal laws against pot have long made academic research on the plant a challenge.

New medical marijuana laws go into effect across Michigan on Tuesday.

The laws center around creating a new structure and set of businessregulations for the still-budding industry.

Matt Abel, executive director of Michigan NORML, a pro-pot group, says the changes include a new category of marijuana-infused products.

“In addition to dried leaves and flowers being legal to possess for patients, the legislature has added the words resin and extract, so now concentrated forms of cannabis will be legal in Michigan … and topical oils and ointments, tinctures, which are a liquid that someone might put under their tongue, beverages and edibles.”

The number of pregnant women smoking cannabis has gone up 62 percent since 2002, figures reveal.

Despite the growing swell of studies showing marijuana's medicinal qualities, all peer-reviewed research shows the drug is detrimental to unborn babies.

It can damage the development of the fetal brain, and can also increase a child's risk of developing health problems such as asthma.

However, a new study by New York's Columbia University has shown the prevalence of marijuana use among expectant mothers in the past month rose from 2.4 percent in 2002 to 3.9 percent in 2014.

Lead author Dr Deborah Hasin said: 'These results offer an important step toward understanding trends in marijuana use among women of reproductive age.

Israeli scientists began their pioneering research to isolate the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana with a 10-pound stash seized by the Tel Aviv police. That effort, in the 1960s, helped propel Israel to the vanguard of research into the plant’s medicinal properties and lay the foundations for a medical marijuana industry.

Guam's Governor, Eddie Calvo, who vetoed a bill that would allow eligible residents to grow medical marijuana at home, has proposed legalising recreational marijuana, with heavy taxation.

Mr Calvo said he wants to look at how states navigated into recreational marijuana.

In a written statement he said "let's figure it out and then tax the heck out of it and use those taxes to help fund the hospital, public safety and education."

The Pacific Daily News reports, in his veto message last week for the homegrown medical marijuana bill, the governor stated concerns about the cost of regulating marijuana grown at home.

When Ohio Gov. John Kasich effectively legalized medical cannabis in Ohio, with a stroke of a pen, the state became the 25th in the U.S. to legalize a very comprehensive medical cannabis program. This week the Ohio Board of Pharmacy has rolled out several new sets of rules for the evolving program.  Finally clearing the smoke with Ohio’s medical cannabis program with some sort of focus in rules now proposed for cultivators, doctors who recommend it for patients, and for dispensaries.

MEDICINAL cannabis crops on the outskirts of Perth will become a reality in 2017.

Though don’t expect to see fields of cannabis plants on the city’s fringes because the “discreet” and “hard to access” facilities will employ military-style security to keep intruders out.

WA-based companies AusCann and MGC Pharma both want to cultivate and manufacture medicinal cannabis here.

AusCann said it would this week lodge a licence application to grow the drug at a secret site near Perth. MGC Pharma isn’t far behind.

Ideal weather conditions mean WA is well-placed to get a slice of the legal market.

On Wednesday, Steven Ognibene had to take the day off from work.

The Rochester surgeon needed to drive three hours to Binghamton because the type of medical marijuana that could help his 11-year-old son, Vincent, wasn’t available locally. It was, though, available at a dispensary in Johnson City, Broome County.

The trip illustrates the obstacles some patients and their families are facing nearly one year after New York allowed for the use of medical marijuana in non-smokable forms for certain conditions.

Colorado’s Health Department announced Tuesday the state will provide $2.35 million for research on the effects of marijuana, with most of the money aiding in two studies analyzing the impact marijuana has on driving, Denver Post reported.