It has been another rough couple of weeks for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). After the long-running scandals of shameful wait times, neglect to the point of lives lost, and the need for new leadership, they have faltered again recently with tone-deaf comparisons to Disneyland visits and mistakenly thinking that 4,000 living veterans had somehow expired, according to incorrect records.

Hardly comforting news for those who served, and to whom we owe so much, as Memorial Day is upon us.

A doctor is upset after the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix blocked her from giving a lecture about marijuana’s effect on veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

This summer, Dr. Sue Sisley is conducting a study on PTSD and medical marijuana that is funded by aColorado marijuana research grant. Although the Drug Enforcement Administration approved her work, the Phoenix VA Medical Center told Sisley she couldn’t give a presentation there.

The growing acceptance of and access to legal marijuana has some people worried that the youth are going to start using it more frequently, but that’s not the demographic where pot has really taken off. Instead, it’s senior citizens.

Whether it’s wide-open medical marijuana states like California or fully legal states like Colorado, the gray-haired set is increasingly turning to pot, and not just to ease their aches and pains With a half-dozen more states likely to have legalization on the ballot (and win) this year and medical marijuana coming to more, grandma and grandpa are set to become even more interested.

The first study on the characteristics of patients with Health Ministry permission for treatment with medical marijuana – until now an unknown field – was revealed on Wednesday at the Sixth International Jerusalem Conference on Health Policy.

The conference was organized by the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research.

The study was led by Prof. Pesach Shvartzman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Health Sciences Faculty, who said even though medical cannabis has been legal for a decade and is licensed to more than 20,000 patients for relieving pain and other symptoms, “there has been no information about the users themselves.”

E-cig vaporisers can produce the health boost of cannabis without getting users high, according to new research.

Scientists say the battery charged devices may provide an alternative method of administering the drug to relieve pain, while avoiding the mind bending properties of an illegal spliff.

In a study cannabinoids, chemicals from the plant which are said to have a range of benefits, were extracted with butane gas to make concentrated hash oil in an e-liquid, which could be atomized.

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.

Hitting the gridiron means dealing with aches and pains, but for Baltimore Ravens left tackle Eugene Monroe that doesn't mean he's willing to accept future penalties. Monroe was one of the many advocates of marijuana research at UNLV on Wednesday for a symposium.

"We are warriors, we're gladiators, no one wants to talk about wants to hear about your pain," said Monroe.

Monroe has witnessed how professional athletes rely on prescription drugs like opiates to deal with the pain of injury. Wednesday, Monroe stepped up as the first active NFL player to advocate for cannabis research.

"Medical cannabis has a way to mitigate pain, and potentially has the ability to protect our brain," said Monroe.

Marijuana is illegal in North Carolina, but that is not stopping one woman from getting it to her sick daughter.

Kendra Martin's daughter, Ali, has an extremely rare disease that causes constant myoclonic seizures.

Martin said marijuana has helped her daughter get off two-thirds of her prescription medications, and does a much better job at treating her condition.

"She has Unverricht-Lungbord Disease III," Martin explained. "She is the only case of its kind in the United States. Ali constantly seizes, she has a constant seizure rhythm."

Martin provides her daughter marijuana in many different forms.

North Carolina lawmakers have an opportunity to make what Martin is doing legal.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan have operated in a grey area for quite some time now. Michigan’s medical marijuana law does not specify whether dispensaries are allowable or not. Michigan caregivers are allowed to help out other patients, which is usually the provision that dispensaries operate on. Michigan dispensaries have been under attack due to the lack of statewide regulations. The Michigan Appeals Court ruled against medical marijuana dispensaries recently, dealing a blow to the growing dispensary population in Michigan. Per Marijuana Business Daily:

A proposal to legalize Ohio medical marijuana has squeaked through a critical Senate panel over opposition of some Republicans and Democrats.

The Senate Government Oversight & Reform Committee’s 7-to-5 vote Wednesday sets the stage for probable passage of the bill out of both legislative chambers by the end of the day. State lawmakers are rushing the bill out before their summer recess as ammunition against a well-funded medical marijuana issue working its way to fall ballots.

The final bill bars patients from smoking or growing marijuana for medical use, but allows its use in vapor form for certain chronic health conditions.