Public support for marijuana legalization is at a record high in the United States, but not everybody is embracing reform.

Certain industries have a financial interest in keeping weed illegal — private prisons, law enforcement, and Big Pharma, for example— but there's another opponent to legalization that most people don't think about: the drug-testing industry.

Critics are calling "reefer madness" on a new study from Australia claiming smoking pot will give your kids cancer. 

Cannabis has been shown in cell, animal and limited human trials to prevent, halt or kill cancer, researchers note. Australia is getting world-famous for their reefer-madness research, this time for equating pot to the notorious birth defect-causing chemical thalidomide. 

On Tuesday, Associate Professor Stuart Reece and Professor Gary Hulse at The University of Western Australia released a paper called “Chromothripsis and epigenomics complete causality criteria for cannabis- and addiction-connected carcinogenicity, congenital toxicity and heritable genotoxicity”, published July 2016 in the journal "Mutation Research". 

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia now have laws on the books that legalize marijuana in some form. Most regulate consumption of marijuana for medical needs; only Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington have legalized pot for recreational use. Despite the fact that many local law enforcement officials believe any focus on marijuanaprevents them from working on more pressing community needs, ingesting cannabis in any form is still a crime under federal law.

The Missouri House twice this year killed attempts to legalize medical marijuana.  A measure with the same aim could appear on the November ballot.  It’s backed by a group called New Approach Missouri. 

Spokesman Jack Cardetti says enough signatures were collected, but they must still be reviewed for verification by the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.

One medical marijuana proposal is dead, another could end up on ballot

Ready or not, with its legalization in several states and those old-school taboos surrounding weed being febrezed away, a massive dollar sign hangs above Marijuana industry as its potential growth projections outpace the smartphone industry.

The Illinois House has approved a plan to expand the state’s medical marijuana pilot program by two-and-a-half years and add post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illness to the list of allowed conditions.

Lawmakers voted 86-27 on Monday to advance the measure, which Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner supports. It now goes to the Senate, where it’s expected to pass.

Illinois’ four-year pilot program is set to sunset at the end of 2017. Under the bill, it will continue to July 1, 2020.

Democratic Rep. Lou Lang is the bill sponsor. He says the changes are in the best interest of patients and will help ensure the viability of the program.

The program started in 2014 but the first medical cannabis sales didn’t occur until November 2015.

Legal marijuana is already a global industry and the U.S. is behind the curve.

When you think of the legal marijuana industry, you think of Colorado and California. But marijuana is not uniquely American, nor is the legalization movement.

If you can't, or don't, want to visit a brick-and-mortar dispensary to browse strains and get recommendations, you're going to be spoiled for choice in 2016

WoahStork, created by UCLA Ph.D student Nicco Reggente, is among the latest online services designed to lower barriers to entry for cannabis newbies, and serve more seasoned users looking for a predictable, customizable high.

We know that 43 illegal medical marijuana dispensaries in Toronto were raided by police May 26. But what led to shut-downs is a matter of debate for within the medical marijuana community of dispensaries, activists, and licensed producers (LP's). 

More than one-fifth of the money paid to veterans by the federal government for prescribed drugs in the fiscal year 2015-16 went toward medical cannabis. That's up from just 0.5 per cent in 2013-14.

The data, obtained by CBC News through an Access to Information request, shows the effect medical marijuana payments are having on the drug reimbursement budget of Veterans Affairs Canada.

In 2015-16, veterans were reimbursed $91,557,485 for all prescribed drugs. Of that, $20,538,153 went toward medical marijuana.

The dollar value of marijuana payments to veterans have increased more than 50-fold in the past two years.