ALBANY - The state's former chief of homeland security has a new job safeguarding marijuana shipments, the Daily News has learned.

Michael Balboni, who served as the top homeland security official of former governors Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson, has been hired as a security consultant for pot grower Empire State Compassionate Care.

The company is one of several looking to obtain a license to grow and distribute medical marijuana in New York.

“What we are doing is putting all the gates, guards, guns and gadgets in place to ensure that there is seed to sale and no diversion of product,” Balboni told the News.

During the last few months in Poland, cannabis has been receiving a good deal of attention. This is a result of a few events - both positive and negative - which have placed the issue of cannabis regulation in the mainstream media limelight.

Cannabis Activist Arrested

The state is holding a public hearing Wednesday on a request to add autism to the list of conditions that qualify for medical marijuana. 

Lisa Smith of Van Buren Township filed the request to add the disorder to the list.

Smith said her autistic son's severe behavior stopped after taking medical marijuana orally to treat a different condition.

Colleen Allen, president of the Autism Alliance of Michigan, said alternative treatments for the disorder require more study.

“We’re not saying they don’t work for some kids," Allen said. "[But] just because it works for one child doesn’t mean it should be recommended for groups of children.”

Allen said her organization relies on treatments that have been vetted on larger groups of children.

Rabat- Hamid Chabat, Secretary General of the Istiqlal Party, one of Morocco’s major opposition political parties, has once again called for the legalization of Cannabis.

Chabat called over weekend for the legalization of cannabis and the reorientation of its cultivation to the pharmaceutical industries.

He called for the outright legalization of cannabis, calling the government’s proposal to replace the cultivation of the plant by raising goats, a ‘lie’.

This call comes just few months before the municipal elections scheduled for next September. The Istiqlal party denies any attempt to use the issue for electoral purposes.

HARTFORD -- In a bipartisan move that's the last hurdle before debates in the Senate and House, the General Law Committee voted Tuesday morning to allow children to join the state's medical marijuana program.

Acting on an amendment from the state Senate, the committee approved a new section that would prohibit those under 18 from smoking or inhaling the drug's vapors. In liquid form, however, marijuana has been found to reduce childhood seizures.

Belgium has an unusual history in terms of drug policy. For decades after prohibition, all drugs were treated similarly harshly. At the turn of the 21st century, cannabis laws were relaxed and personal quantities tolerated. However, a change of government late last year may spell an abrupt end to this tolerant approach.

Legal aspects concerning consumption, possession and cultivation of cannabis

Cannabis possession & consumption

TRENTON — As a New Jersey family wages a court battle to get permission for their daughter to consume edible medical marijuana in school, Colorado this week became the first state in the nation to legalize on-campus cannabis use.

Inspired by the plight of Jack Splitt, a Lakewood, Colo. teenager who relies on a ventilator and wheelchair, Colorado legislators approved a bill that allows students who are registered medical marijuana patients to use edible cannabis products in school, so long as they are administered by a parent or an approved caregiver. Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill into law Monday, calling it "a pretty good reflection of what the community wants."

A Massachusetts woman who cleared her medical marijuana use with her new employer—and who was then subsequently fired on her first day of work, anyway, for having positive drug test results—has filed a discrimination complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in an attempt to get her job back.

Reports the Boston Globe:

During the 2015 legislative session, SB259, a bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, which would have legalized medical marijuana in Utah, failed to pass the Utah Senate by just one vote.

The bill identified a number of illnesses that would have qualified patients to receive cannabis, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, AIDS, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, glaucoma and severe or chronic pain.

By Peter Sessa

A city world famous for its cigar trade may soon be home to the nexus of Florida’s medical marijuana industry.

How do you build an industry around a product that is still considered illegal in your state? Rather than a challenge, Common Bond Collaborative sees this as a once in a lifetime opportunity.