New father Tristin Jones*, 35, has smoked marijuana for so long that it was the only way he felt normal.

Mr Jones, who has smoked weed every day for 17 years, had promised to quit at every major milestone in his life, including when he turned 30 and after his son was born 18 months ago. But he couldn't. And he didn't. 

Mr Jones was also worried about being caught by police during random drug testing, or about having a car accident with cannabis still in his system.

He mostly wanted to be drug free to enjoy the highs and lows of raising a child. 

"When my child grows up, I would want him to be proud of who I am, not thinking that I am a pothead. And I want to be emotionally and mentally available," he told Fairfax Media.

The government of New Brunswick is giving a proposed medical marijuana facility in the province a major financial boost — investing a total of $4 million into the operation.

The money comes from the Northern New Brunswick Economic Development Fund, through both Opportunities NB and the Regional Development Corporation who each invested $2 million.

The province says the medical marijuana project could create more than 200 full-time jobs in the northern New Brunswick town of Atholville by 2021.

“We understand how important job creation, education and health care are to New Brunswickers,” Premier Brian Gallant said in a release.

Imagine a marijuana grow-op in a greenhouse the size of ten Canadian football fields.

That’s what Vancouver-based Aurora Cannabis Inc. is aiming to build in central Alberta, a 600,000-sq.-ft. facility with the capacity to produce up to an estimated 70,000 kg. of cannabis once it begins production, expected by the summer of 2018.

It could become the country’s largest producer, though Ontario-based Aphria Inc. recently bought a swath of land capable of holding a million sq.-ft. of production space, for $6.5 million.

Aurora, currently Alberta’s only licensed producer of medical marijuana, already operates a sprawling 55,200 sq.-ft. facility in Cremona, northwest of Calgary.

Arkansas voters may have to choose between two separate ballot measures in the upcoming November election when trying to determine whether The Land of Opportunity should join the ranks of 25 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing medical marijuana.

"Instead of growing peppers in the Arava, people will grow cannabis."

Behind closed doors somewhere in the recesses of the Israeli government’s Agricultural Research Organization, Dr. Nirit Bernstein has been working for the past three years to perfect cannabis cultivation practices.

“It’s difficult to be a cannabis researcher. It’s much easier to be a tomato or citrus researcher,” she told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “We are dealing with an illegal drug. Even though we are growing cannabis for medicinal purposes, it is still by definition an illegal drug.”

Poland Poland is an eastern European country on the Baltic Sea, with a population of almost forty million, a strong economy, and (in recent years) a generally progressive approach to drug legislation. However, despite legislative successes over the last decade, the drug laws remain relatively strict by modern European standards.

What started out as a service that delivered monthly packages of skin-, body-, and hair-care samples to beauty product enthusiasts has become a universal business model. Want a shave kit? There’s a box for that. Need vitamins, chia seeds, and yoga gear? There’s a box for that. What about dog treats and toys? There’s a box for that too. Now, the box subscription model has taken a leap forward to join the medical marijuana gold rush in California. A new company called Au Box has introduced a monthly subscription service, available only in San Francisco at the moment, where clients with a medical marijuana license can sign up and receive a special box of cannabis products to their doorstep each month.

New York is considering expanding its 9-month-old medical marijuana program by adding more growers and allowing home delivery.

The state Health Department has issued a report recommending ways the program can be improved. Some of those recommendations include:

Washington state is moving ahead with its plans to allow scientific research of marijuana, sidestepping federal rules that critics say have hampered study of the drug for decades.

The state has a new marijuana research license that will allow laboratories to grow marijuana for scientific study. State officials expect to start accepting applications for the new license by January.

Supporters hope the state licensing helps provide new evidence of marijuana’s effectiveness as a medical treatment, potentially paving the way for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to ease restrictions on the drug’s possession and use.

Starting on August 31, everything changes for medical cannabis caregivers in Montana. A Helena, Montana judge recently rejected an advocacy group’s request to delay enforcement of restrictions on Montana’s medical cannabis industry. After August 31, medical cannabis providers will be barred from selling cannabis to more than three patients. The state Supreme Court earlier this year upheld that provision of a 2011 state law passed after the Montana Cannabis Industry Association sued to block it.