Five properties in Scottsdale are authorized to sell medical marijuana, more than double from a year ago, according to city records. Four are within a 1-square-mile area in the Scottsdale Airpark near Scottsdale and Thunderbird roads.

Everyone knows who defeated medical marijuana in Florida two years ago: casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who single-handedly pumped in millions to pay for scare ads that helped barely keep the amendment below 60 percent approval. But few remember that it was a St. Petersburg-based developer who created the anti-pot group that took Adelson's money. 

Now that developer — GOP fundraiser Mel Sembler — is vowing to defeat the new medical marijuana initiative that'll be on this fall's ballot. Sembler has promised to raise at least $10 million to beat the proposal.

The growing number of patients who claim marijuana helped them drop their painkiller habit has intrigued lawmakers and emboldened advocates, who are pushing for cannabis as a treatment for the abuse of opioids and illegal narcotics like heroin, as well as an alternative to painkillers.

It's a tempting sell in New England, hard hit by the painkiller and heroin crisis, with a problem: There is very little research showing marijuana works as a treatment for the addiction.

The Alabama legislature on Wednesday voted to decriminalize medicinal marijuana oil possession.

In a 95-4 vote in the House of Representatives and a 29-3 vote in the Senate, legislators supported a bill supporters say is a bid to help families struggling with debilitating medical conditions.

Though derived from cannabis, cannabidiol doesn't cause a high like marijuana due to reduced amounts of the psychoactive property tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Proponents say it can help alleviate severe seizures, among other conditions.

"This is an opportunity to give some sunlight to families," said Sen. Paul Sanford, who sponsored the bill in the Senate. "They don't want to feel like criminals, but they know they need to try something like this."

SALT LAKE CITY — It didn't go anywhere in the legislative session, but a new poll shows if a majority of Utahns get their way, medical marijuana will eventually be legalized in the Beehive State.

A poll released Wednesday says two-thirds of the state is in favor of legalizing medical marijuana. Some say it's not that easy to just legalize it, but others argue it's time to help patients.

“There is movement and there is hope,” said Christine Stenquist, President of TRUCE and candidate for the House of Representatives.

For years, Christine Stenquist has advocated for Utah patients like herself in need of medical marijuana.

Our circadian rhythm, or internal clock, helps to control much more than just our "sleep-wake" cycles. In fact, many tissues and cells throughout the body operate around this biological clock that changes how they metabolize glucose, amino acids, fats and other fuels. Moreover, most cells in the body also change how they respond to various hormonal and environmental signals based on where they are in the clock. These very signals of light, food intake, hormones and sleep also alter the body's biorhythm in turn. Essentially, it is a two-way street where the existing rhythm of the body's clock alters whole-body metabolism and physiology on the one hand, and environmental cues exert influence to regulate and help "set the time" on these biological clocks on the other hand.

Some rheumatoid arthritis patients say that using forms of medical marijuana eases the pain and inflammation they suffer from their condition.

Yet most doctors specializing in rheumatoid arthritis treatment were unaware that a growing body of research identifies medical marijuana's active ingredient, cannabinoids, as a possible arthritis treatment, according to a 2014 survey in the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders.

Marijuana is about the healing, not the high.

That was the take-away Tuesday from a news conference hosted by Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, a political action group that wants to put an initiative on the November ballot for a comprehensive medical marijuana program.

A new chart from the Marijuana Business Daily show that America's four states with legal, recreational marijuana markets are going to have some company this fall - especially if the poll numbers in three key states hold up.

As Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration weigh whether marijuana should be rescheduled, public faith in the drug classification system continues to erode. Debate rages between those who emphasize the strangeness of marijuana being on the highly restrictive Schedule I alongside far more harmful drugs like heroin, and those who emphasize how strange it would be to put crude plant matter on a less restrictive schedule alongside well-specified FDA-approved medications.