My work takes me to wellness expos around the state,many of them focused on older Mainers. In the last several months, I have been fortunate to meet hundreds of Maine seniors and to answer thousands of questions about medical marijuana. Distilling all that into a reader-friendly blog post isn’t easy, but here are five important facts about medical marijuana that every “silver citizen” should know:

1. You don’t have to smoke it.

European non-for-profit organisation Medical Cannabis Bike Tour (MCBT) is launching a crowdfunding campaign on Walacea to finance an independent trial that investigates the effectiveness of cannabinoids (the active compounds in cannabis, CBD and THC) as a treatment for patients diagnosed with brain tumours.

By hosting an annual bike ride through Europe, MCBT has raised €200,000 since 2012 to help fund an independent clinical trial on 30 to 40 brain cancer patients in Spanish hospitals. From June 11th to 13th, 80 people will ride 420 kilometres through Belgium, Germany and Holland, with hopes to raise a further €280,000.

Health authorities have approved the use of cannabis derived medication Elixinol - on a one-off basis - to treat a coma patient encountering ongoing seizures. But does it work?

The drug was approved on compassionate grounds by Associate Minister of Health Hon Peter Dunne, to be administered by clinicians treating Wellington patient Alex Renton.

The Science Media Centre contacted experts for comment. 

Assoc Prof Michelle Glass, Head - Department of Pharmacology, University of Auckland, comments:

In a brightly lit sealed room at Celltrion's headquarters near Seoul, a man in white overalls and a hairnet squats next to a huge steel tank, extracting a beaker of brown liquid resembling stale beer.

The substance is hazardous to people; emergency showers are nearby in case of accidental exposure. But it is the source of nutrition for the genetically engineered cells used to make biological medicines, as Celltrion spearheads a push by South Korea to become a force in the pharmaceuticals industry.

The Lift Cannabis Forum Series is our attempt to expand on the conversations and topics relevant to the current medical marijuana industry in Canada, from the perspective of patients, producers, doctors, activists and more. Medical cannabis is a subject that continues to grow in popularity in Canada and around the globe, and we feel it important to help ensure the conversations on the subject are as nuanced and informed as they need to be.

A leading Australian substance abuse expert is pleading for moderation in policies on e-cigarettes.

The University of Queensland’s Professor Wayne Hall said current law on electronic nicotine delivery systems placed researchers – and people who wanted to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking – in a difficult situation.

E-cigarettes containing nicotine cannot legally be sold in Australia.

”We should not have to choose between banning e-cigarettes completely and selling them alongside children’s candy,” Professor Hall said.

Professor Hall is an advisor to the World Health Organization and the director of UQ’s Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research.

Delegates to the American Medical Association (AMA), the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States, have passed a resolution in support of protecting physicians who recommend cannabis from legal prosecution. The vote came during an annual meet in Chicago.

Specifically, the AMA agreed that in states where the therapeutic or recreational use of cannabis is legal, physicians who give it to patients for “an approved medical condition” should be guaranteed they will not face federal prosecution for doing so.

South Dakotans might get a chance to decide whether medical marijuana should be allowed.

The Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that an explanation for an initiated measure to legalize marijuana has been filed with the Secretary of State's Office.

Melissa Mentele, the founder of an advocacy organization that has helped two families relocate to Colorado, authored the measure. Despite past failure to legalize medical marijuana use in the state, she feels confident this latest measure will garner strong support.

"Personally I think it's a slam dunk," she said. "I think there is so much science out there that people can't dispute it."

OTTAWA -- New regulations which increase oversight around the authorization of marijuana for medical use have gone into effect.

The federal government says the updated rules are a response to requests from medical licensing bodies to increase the information available to them on how doctors are authorizing marijuana.

The regulations require licensed producers of medical marijuana to provide quarterly reports to health-care licensing bodies, like the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, on how health-care practitioners are authorizing the use of marijuana.

A total of 43 companies are competing for a license to grow and sell medical marijuana in New York.

The state Health Department late Tuesday released a list of the companies that applied for a license before the June 5 deadline. The state is expected to award five licenses next month, and the recipients will begin dispensing marijuana to seriously ill patients in January.

The state has not identified the principals behind the companies or where the businesses would be located.