Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli chemist, is best known for his work in the field of cannabis, including helping to isolate and synthesize its active component, called THC. But he is increasingly impatient to see his findings translate into clinical trials.

At the age of 85, he is hopeful the field to which he has devoted his life’s work has reached a possible inflection point. In March, the National Institutes of Health held a neuroscience research summit focused on marijuana and cannabinoids.

Who: Jonathan Zaid is a student at the University of Waterloo and executive director of the group Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana. The group is "dedicated to protecting and improving the rights of medical cannabis patients." It's also partnered with Aphria, a company that produces and supplies medical marijuana.

Health Canada has significantly expanded its medical marijuana manual for health-care professionals, adding major new sections about the potential adverse effects on the teenaged brain and driving safety.

The document is much larger than the previous 2013 edition, and responds to doctors' complaints about having too little information on the medical science even as they're being asked to authorize marijuana for a growing number of patients.

With a nod to Whoopi Goldberg, lawmakers in New Jersey this week announced legislation that would loosen the state’s strict medical marijuana law to allow women to get pot-based products to ease menstrual cramps.

Democratic Assembly members Tim Eustace, L. Grace Spencer and Angelica Jimenez introduced the bill on Thursday, noting in a news release that their move follows the actress’ collaboration with a maker of organic marijuana edibles on a line of medical cannabis designed to relieve menstrual pain.

“People have this puritanical idea that it’s a bunch of potheads sitting in these dispensaries, but there are some very sick patients in need,” Eustace said.

As is the case with humans, pets suffer side effects — including liver and kidney damage — from the medication they’re prescribed. But L.A. veterinarian Dr. Tim Shu says there’s a safe alternative for some of these prescriptions: medical marijuana.

The marijuana extract Shu created for pets, called VETCBD, is meant for animals suffering from arthritis, separation and travel anxiety, appetite loss, seizures and chronic pain. VETCBD is made from cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive extract of marijuana. In other words, pets can’t get high — and, according to Shu, the side effects are almost non-existent.

For centuries, marijuana (cannabis) has been used in herbal remedies. A number of studies in the past have shown that marijuana can be helpful for treating neuropathic pain, which is caused by damaged nerves.

More recently, a few studies linked the biologically active components in marijuana with cancer cure. While some studies claim that marijuana cures cancer, others suggest it can effectively treat nausea and vomiting from cancer chemotherapy.

Scientists in Italy have now traced marijuana’s ability to treat male fertility.

Smoking pot frequently is known to take its toll on male sperm, but the new study from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy affirms marijuana has the potential to treat infertility in men.

DENVER -- A new Colorado law allowing medical marijuana use at public schools is getting a second look Monday in a House committee.

The current law allows students who need medical marijuana to use edible pot at public schools - as long as the school districts agree.

No school districts currently does, so patient advocates are pushing the bill to make Colorado the second state to require schools to allow nurses or parents to administer medical pot. New Jersey made the change last year.

"They need to make reasonable accommodations so that children who need medical marijuana can go to school," said Stacey Linn, a Lakewood mother of a 15-year-old with cerebral palsy who is not allowed to wear a skin patch delivering a cannabis-derived treatment to school.

Lori Ajax has two years to set up California’s first system to license, regulate and tax medical marijuana. Gov. Jerry Brown recently appointed the Republican to become the first chief of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

Ajax, 51, was previously chief deputy director at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, where she worked in various positions since 1995. In her new role, she faces a moving target: California voters are likely to vote on an initiative in November that would legalize recreational use of marijuana.

Green Aloha Ltd., one of the consortiums applying for Kauai’s first medical marijuana dispensary license, has struck an agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 480.

Across the U.S., UFCW represents more than 1.3 million members — some of whom are part of its Cannabis Workers Rising program, working in the developing recreational and medical marijuana industries on the Mainland.

The province of Ontario introduced legislation in 2015 to control the growing e-cigarette market with Bill 45, called the Making Healthier Choices Act.

As reported, the legislation had originally intended to exempt medicinal marijuana patients from the legislation, but that decision was quickly reversed amid what was no doubt a public outcry over the possibility of second-hand exposure.