One day after Prime Minister Freundel Stuart told church leaders the “nefarious” illegal drug – as well as firearms – trade was “haunting” the country and threatening the very safety and security of the Barbadian family, it emerged today that government was examining the possible use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Senior Medical Officer Dr. Kenneth George revealed at a conference on the availability and rational use of opioids that the Ministry of Health was undertaking research into the use of medical marijuana in palliative care.

A fully developed legal market for medical marijuana in Michigan could lead to millions of dollars in new state tax revenue.

Exactly how much is open to interpretation, but some analysts’ estimates suggest it could top $63 million a year.

New regulations for the state’s medical marijuana industry, signed by Gov. Rick Snyder and taking effect in December (though a licensing system won’t be active until December 2017), will require a 3% excise tax on dispensaries’ gross sales receipts.

A CANNABIS gel will be rubbed onto the arms of adults with epilepsy in a world-first trial led by Melbourne doctors to reduce uncontrolled ­seizures.

New treatments are desperately needed for the 30 per cent of people with a drug-resistant form of the neurological condition who live with the constant worry of having a seizure in public that results in an accident or even death.

Royal Melbourne Hospital neurologist Professor Terry O’Brien, who is leading the trial, said the gel, which does not contain the hallucinogenic ingredient found in the plant, was expected to be more effective than taking the drug ­orally.

“Cannabidiol (the non-psychoactive component of the cannabis) has a high first metabolism in the liver,” Prof O’Brien said.

NAN MACKENZIE meets a respectable grandma who smokes a joint every night before bed and calls for the legalisation of medical marijuana and the decriminalising of cannabis use.

Known for its healing properties, CBD concentrate or Cannabidiol is an absolute preventive medicine. A natural substance that is made or derived from the stems and roots of cannabis plant, CBD is no less than a medical wonder. The herb is being touted as the next big thing in the food supplement industry and is believed to have scope for a possible bigger medical application.

CBD concentrate is among the 85 chemical substances that are found with cannabis plant. CBD concentrate mainly comes in oil form as well wax form and is purely legal way of treating anxiety, muscle pain, spasm or various types of inflammatory diseases.

Edible weed makers want to take a bite out of the $5.4 billion legal marijuana industry in what seems like the most counterintuitive way possible: give people less pot.

Small-dose, or "microdosed," edibles make up one of the fastest rising sectors of the industry, according to a group of panelists at the recent New West Summit in San Francisco, California.

The cost of medicinal cannabis is set to tumble after Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne approved a Canadian pain relief product.

It is estimated the marijuana-based tincture called Tilray will cost at least 50 per cent less than the existing legal product Sativex, a UK mouth spray made by GW Pharma.

Multiple sclerosis sufferer, Dr Huhana Hickey, who applied to use Tilray, said: "I'm so relieved. It's going to save me $700 a month."

The AUT academic says she has spent $9000 on prescriptions since she started taking medicinal cannabis in February. Hickey says the results have been remarkable.

"I'm living my life again. I'm back to work, I am fully-functioning"

As a pediatrician, Dr. Larry Wolk was trained to treat marijuana as "bad" and "illegal" — and to counsel patients against using it. 

And that his history shaped the way he approached the introduction of legal marijuana as Colorado's chief medical officer, he said.

"I think I came into this with some biases as a result of our culture, prior to legalization," he told CBC News.

But nearly three years after legalization in Colorado, he said his thinking changed at each turn.

On almost every measure, whether it was rates of hospitalizations, consumption among teens and adults, or collisions related to marijuana, the pattern was the same: an initial increase, and then long term stabilization with no increase from the rates prior to legalization in January 2014.

The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) issued a formal statement calling for the rescheduling of marijuana and called for more research to determine its safety and effectiveness this week.

The organization notes that there is a lack of evidence regarding the long-term effects of marijuana use, and overlapping state and federal laws create huge obstacles for physicians who may want to prescribe it.  Under the current federal law, clinical research on marijuana is hindered, and physicians are faced with difficult ethical and legal questions.

“Many patients could potentially benefit from its use,” said ASRA Board member Samer Narouze, MD, PhD. “Neuropathic pain is probably the indication with the most convincing clinical evidence,” he said.

It's been six months since Gov. Tom Wolf signed a law legalizing medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, and already some seriously ill children have access to the drug.

But qualifying adults won't be able to get medical marijuana until the program is fully in place in early 2018.

By this fall, the state Health Department expects to publish temporary regulations for growers and processors, and by year's end for dispensaries, physicians, patients, caregivers and laboratories.

The state already has approved more than 50 applications for caregivers to bring medical marijuana into the state for sick children.

A look at how the program is developing:

THE BACKDROP: A NEW LAW AND DEVELOPING PROGRAM