SEATTLE — King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg said medical pot shops have been selling marijuana illegally for years and that will end soon after he serves lawsuits to 15 collectives in unincorporated parts of the county in the coming days.

For years, the NW Cannabis Collective catered to its clients seeking medicine for pain and other conditions.

NW Cannabis CEO Michael Keysor said, “Most of these patients have been given up on by doctors. They have no answers for them.”

This month, he received a letter from authorities telling him to shut down or be sued. He says a forced closure will kill his business for good.

EDMONTON – Users of medical marijuana are upset over a drug bust in Edmonton last week in which police raided a dispensary and charged the family that operates it.

The owners claim, up until last week, police left them alone. On Wednesday morning, that changed. ALERT’s Green Team seized all marijuana products from the Mobile Access Compassionate Resources Organization Society (MACROS).

The non-profit group sold medical marijuana to people who have a prescription. It served more than 1,000 clients.

There are some things that stay with you no matter how much time passes. Almost a year ago, I met a young man named Dan Haslam, and the look in his eyes that day is something that will remain with me always.

PhytoTech Medical and MMJ Bioscience merger has created Australia's first vertically integrated medical marijuana company.

PhytoTech Medical and MMJ Bioscience have joined forces to become the first Australian-listed medical marijuana company to control pharmaceutical hemp from farm to pharmacy counter.

The re-branded MMJ PhytoTech will control the complete supply chain from cultivation to distribution after Phytotech raised $4.8 million to buy MMJ Bioscience.

MMJ PhytoTech chief executive Andreas Gedeon said the merger made the company one of the only serious players in the medical marijuana market.

South Dakotans have long been using marijuana illegally to treat a variety of aliments. A new initiated measure is aiming to legalize up to three ounces of marijuana for patients with serious medical conditions. The patient would need two separate doctor recommendations. 

Republican state Sen. Craig Tieszen isn't the stereotypical backer of medical marijuana in South Dakota.

For more than three decades, Tieszen wore a badge as a police officer, spending the last seven years of his career as Rapid City police chief.

And now he is a suit-wearing lawmaker, who is serving the final year of his fourth term in the South Dakota Senate.

Amelia Weaver, 9, started receiving medical marijuana treatments Friday for a rare form of epilepsy. Her parents say that her seizures have decreased dramatically since treatment began.

It's early days, but a Hibbing couple are ecstatic about their daughter's initial response to treatment with medical marijuana.

"We gave her her first dose on Friday morning," Angie Weaver said on Monday about 9-year-old daughter Amelia. "She had a seizure-free day."

Amelia, who has Dravet syndrome, a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy, had been suffering between 30 and 80 drop seizures per day, her mother said. In a drop seizure, the individual temporarily loses muscle strength and often falls without any ability to catch herself.

EMMA Litleton will conduct an international hunt to discover how medicinal cannabis can best treat seriously-ill children.

The Moonee Valley woman is among 23 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust recipients, which will enable her to head overseas to pursue her studies.

Ms Litleton, a senior solicitor, is a specialist in children’s law and said the prevalence of children being treated with cannabis oil had increased.

“There’s a lot of ethical issues with children, where we have to ensure that their best interests are met and that it is safe,” Ms Litleton said.

He said children given cannabis mainly had “serious epilepsy” and their parents had found conventional medication wasn’t working.

Canisters of medical marijuana and a price list for the marijuana products is seen inside Highland Health medical dispensary and wellness center in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009.

A growing number of cancer patients and oncologists view marijuana as a viable alternative for managing the negative effects, such as nausea, bone pain, anxiety, and depression, of both chemotherapy and cancer itself.

After a successful surgery to remove a cancer-ridden section of Jeff Moroso’s large intestine in the spring of 2013, the oncologist sat down with his patient to prepare him for what would come next: 12 rounds of punishing chemotherapy, once every two weeks for six months—standard practice for the treatment of colon cancer.

A cannabis spray used to treat epilepsy, pain and multiple sclerosis will be considered for public funding next month.

Pharmac, the agency responsible for deciding which medicines get subsidised, plans to discuss the Sativex spray with its primary clinical advisory committee, according to a letter from Pharmac released on Friday.

Pharmac said Sativex contained cannabidiol with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis.

The agency said consideration from the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee was the first step in assessing the funding of a new medicine.

The New South Wales Premier Mike Baird says he is excited about the prospects of Australia's first medical cannabis trial for terminally ill adults.

Mr Baird and Medical Research Minister Pru Goward were given a tour of the Calvary Mater hospital today, where the trial is taking place.

Ms Goward said treatment will begin early next year.

"The intention of this trial is to test whether or not medical cannabis can improve the quality of life of patients in their final stages," she said.

The trial involves using both vaporised leaf cannabis and a pharmaceutical and the first results are expected next year.

Mr Baird said the research will improve the quality of life for thousands of terminally ill patients.