Past a barbed-wire fence and motion sensors, and under the gaze of 31 cameras, Shawn Galbraith opens the door to a two-storey, windowless concrete structure amid the lush Central Saanich farmland. It’s the region’s worst-kept secret: a medical marijuana facility on Lochside Drive, next to the family-owned Michell’s Farm.

The head of the operation, Galbraith, has been reluctant to offer media tours because his company, Evergreen Medicinal Supply Inc., is in the final stage of Health Canada’s approval process, a complicated 18-month journey that he doesn’t want to jeopardize.

“Most Japanese people see cannabis as a subculture of Japan but they’re wrong. For thousands of years cannabis has been at the very heart of Japanese culture,” explains Takayasu Junichi, one of the country’s leading experts.

According to Takayasu, the earliest traces of cannabis in Japan are seeds and woven fibers discovered in the west of the country dating back to the Jomon Period (10,000 BC - 300 BC). Archaeologists suggest that cannabis fibers were used for clothes - as well as for bow strings and fishing lines. These plants were likely cannabis sativa - prized for its strong fibers - a thesis supported by a Japanese prehistoric cave painting which appears to show a tall spindly plant with cannabis’s tell-tale leaves.

We all know at least one person who fits the “lazy stoner” stereotype.

These people live, eat, sleep and breathe to puff the magic dragon.

And, if you do get them stoned, all they want to talk about are other times they got high.

While these people may be an endless source of entertainment (It’s even a trope used in some of the best classic stoner films.), it sure as hell doesn’t help the legalization movement that’s been taking America by storm.

The issue of marijuana legalization has become a hot one, especially among the young and socially aware.

Politicians are slowly but surely beginning to understand this isn’t an issue that will simply fade away.

Since ancient times its been known that cannabis can provide relief from a variety of different types of pain.  Recent estimates show that chronic pain affects up to 7.8 million people in the United Kingdom alone and the current pharmaceutical strategies for mitigating chronic pain have led to the addiction to nearly one million of those people.  Over the counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are not much better and can have a variety of adverse effects such as liver damage, erectile dysfunction, and potential for overdose.

Did you know there are actually three types of marijuana, each having a different effect on the user?  Were you aware that cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years?  In China, it was considered one of the fifty fundamental herbs; in Medieval Islam, Arabian physicians used it to treat all sorts of conditions and illnesses.  The Greeks used it to treat injuries and lesions.  You probably weren’t aware of cannabis’ long-standing record of effectiveness.  Your physician may be unaware as well.

It’s war between the states, Supreme Court-style, and this time the stakes are green, marijuana plants that is.

Nebraska and Oklahoma are suing the state of Colorado over its marijuana laws and the Supreme Court wants to know what President Barack Obama thinks about legalizing marijuana.

The two states claim Colorado has created a “cross-border nuisance” by legalizing marijuana and claim their citizens are affected by the increase in marijuana coming from nearby Colorado.

Sherise Nipper and her family are going to Colorado.

“My body is tired and there are some days I just feel like I can't get up anymore,” she explains.

The 35-year-old will take part in a 30 day cannabis trial.

“The only reason I can't be healed in Texas is because of politics and to me that's not very fair.”

Seizures have been a part of her life for ten years now after being diagnosed with epilepsy. Despite a cocktail of medications, she still suffers

“In the past 24 hours I've had more than 50 seizures.”

She's taken CBD Oil before which her husband says helped

“ Just in the little bit she's tried it's severely decreased her seizures,” he told FOX 7 reporter Ann Wyatt Little.

Roger Barbour is suing his daughter Genny’s New Jersey school district, which won’t allow her to take needed cannabis-oil treatments on the property.

The New Jersey parents of a 16-year-old girl with epilepsy and autism are suing for their daughter’s right to consume cannabis oil at school, kicking off a landmark legal case that could have far-reaching impact.

The Country Women's Association has thrown its support behind legalising medicinal cannabis at its annual conference in Tamworth.

The Association passed two motions, the first in support of the use of medicinal marijuana, and the second in support of the legalisation of growing, manufacturing and distributing marijuana for medicinal purposes.

State President, Tanya Cameron, said there was a fair bit of debate about the motions.

Ms Cameron said members had to think hard about their decision but a good majority were in favour of both motions.