Lawyers representing plaintiffs in a proposed class action, claiming Health Canada breached privacy rights and jeopardized the safety of medical marijuana users, will be seeking damages of up to $20,000 per person, a court in Halifax heard Wednesday.

Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan is hearing a certification application for a proposed class action, put forward by medical marijuana users and growers across Canada, who were licensed under the previous federal medicinal marijuana program.

This month’s National Geographic magazine features an interview with Raphael Mechoulam, the Israeli chemist known worldwide as the founder of medical marijuana research, as part of a cover story entitled “Weed: The New Science of Marijuana.”

Mechoulam’s early discoveries include tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis plants, and cannabidiol (CBD), another key ingredient with potential medical benefits but none of the mind-altering effects. He conducted this groundbreaking research in the sixties with Lebanese hashish confiscated by the Israeli national police.

Science crowdfunding startup Walacea is helping Madrid’s MedicalCannabis Bike Tour to raise the final €85,000 it needs to conduct an independent clinical trial into the effect of cannabinoids on brain tumours.

The scientists behind the tour have been working for the past 10 years to find ways to use cannabinoids, a substance found in cannabis, to treat breast cancer, skin cancer and brain tumours.

They have been fundraising since 2012 to get the cash they need for the trial in Spanish hospitals and have so far raised  €200,000.

Donation from Barry and Joy Lambert made ‘not only for benefit of those with childhood epilepsy, like our Katelyn, but for wide range of other conditions’

The grandparents of three-year-old girl with a rare form of epilepsy have made a $33.7m donation to the University of Sydney to fund medicinal cannabis research.

Announcing their donation at the university on Friday, Barry and Joy Lambert said international research suggested their granddaughter Katelyn, who suffers hundreds of seizures each day, may benefit from medicinal cannabis treatment.

MedReleaf Corp. a leading Canadian manufacturer of medical-grade cannabis has announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership in New York State with Compassionate Care Center of New YorkTM (CCCNYTM) a leading biopharmaceutical company applying to become one of five Registered Organizations authorized in New York State to serve the condition-specific palliative needs of qualifying patients with safe and accessible pharmaceutical-grade therapeutics derived from the cannabis plant.

It’s not every day groups of people light spliffs on City Hall’s front steps, but it’s not every day city council deliberates becoming the first government in Canada to bring pot shops into a legal framework.

Vancouver city council started hashing out the details of regulating marijuana-related businesses at City Hall on Wednesday evening, the beginning of what will be a marathon public hearing over whether the city should create rules for businesses that are selling an illegal product.

More than 160 people showed up for a chance to speak to the proposed rules, which have been strongly condemned by the federal government.

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Synthetic cannabinoids have been marketed as safe, legal, herbal alternatives to marijuana, but the data from U.S. poison control centers say otherwise. Poison center calls linked to synthetic cannabinoids have spiked roughly fourfold in just the first few months of 2015, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The sudden rise shows that tighter regulation of such substances is sorely needed, according to the authors of the CDC report.

DENVER (CBS4) – Colorado is spending $9 million to study the role of marijuana as a medication. The state Board of Health approved the grants, and on Saturday researchers will come together to talk about their studies.

There are many topics. People want to know if pot can help with things like Parkinson’s, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even sleep.

We rush around by day, but at night we can’t sleep. Thirty percent of Americans suffer from insomnia. Some turn to pills, while others turn to pot.

“There are studies that suggest that many marijuana users use marijuana for sleep,” Dr. Russell Bowler of National Jewish Health said.

Bowler said it makes sense.

Two New Zealand specialists have entered a blazing debate on prescribing medical marijuana for pain, proving the issue continues to polarise the health sector.

Paul Hardy, Capital & Coast DHB clinical leader pain management says New Zealand doctors should prescribe medical marijuana for pain, while Auckland Regional Pain Service specialist Tipu Aamir warns against it. Their debate features in the Back to Back section of the June issue of the Journal of Primary Health Care.

State officials have selected three companies to move forward toward opening nonprofit medical marijuana treatment centers in New Hampshire, but it remains unclear exactly where or when the centers will open.