Sixteen months after Colorado launched legal recreational marijuana sales, the center of the burgeoning industry in Denver is asking to extend shops' evening closing hours and revisit the outright ban on public consumption.

And many City Council candidates in Tuesday's election are receptive — including several with a good shot of winning or proceeding to a runoff.

Industry concerns center on competing with pot shops in neighboring cities that have closing hours later than Denver's 7 p.m. cutoff for both recreational and medical stores. Some in the industry also want to provide tourists with safe, legal places to smoke or consume their purchases, since hotels typically don't allow it in rooms.

Despite growing acceptance of medical marijuana and its uses, the drug is still illegal on the federal levels and is classified as a schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, defining it as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” For many House Republicans last week, that was the rationale behind voting against an amendment in next year’s appropriations bill to lift a gag order barring Veterans Administration (VA) doctors from discussing medical marijuana with their patients.   

Historic cannabis oil victory

Cannabis in Poland is illegal, with no medicinal cannabis program in place for patients who could potentially benefit from the multi-purpose plant.

Historic cannabis oil victory

But things are changing in Poland. Activists and patients recently rejoiced when Maks, a 5 year old suffering from medication-resistant epilepsy, was allowed to be treated legally with cannabis oil under doctor supervision at the Child Health Center.

The Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), which was mandated to design a regulatory plan for the decriminalised ganja industry, has developed a 17-step scientific footprint proposal.

According to the BSJ, the new ganja industry, which will be standards-led and market-driven, will operate based on a tracking and tracing system.

"We will be tracking and tracing the processes involved from seed to sale," BSJ Chairman Professor Winston Davidson told The Sunday Gleaner.

Proven therapeutic effects on one hand, contradictory laws and moralism on the other, barring the necessary discussion on the use of the herb for various purposes; in the opinion of many consumers, plant the grass at home is a way to not feed the economic chain of the armed drug trafficking, but the initiative still opposes the current Drug Act, which gives loopholes so that, once caught, homemade planters are fined as traffickers.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The California Legislature is considering multiple -- and conflicting -- plans to impose the first major statewide restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries and growers.

The debate over the billion-dollar industry now regulated largely by local government and has pitted cities and law enforcement agencies against marijuana growers and sellers.

The race is on to secure the five licenses to be granted under New York state’s medical marijuana program, which takes effect in January.

And the cash-crop lottery could bring in millions for the winners.

Statewide revenues will likely total $239 million in 2016 and more than $1.2 billion by 2020, according to a report issued by GreenWave Advisors late last year.

“Let the cash register ring for New York state,” says GreenWave’s Matt Karnes.

And there appears to be no shortage of investors looking to dip a hand into this cash register.

Venture capitalists willing to take the plunge include Privateer Holdings and Tilray, both of which have already had a strong presence in the legal marijuana space.

Nearly 20 years after voters approved the medical use of marijuana in California, the state’s cannabis trade is a wild west of legitimate enterprises, outlaws and erratic enforcement, caused in large part by a patchwork of inconsistent laws covering the $2bn-a-year industry.

Legislators are seeking to bring law and order to the business. Three bills – two in the state assembly and one in the senate – are competing to create a framework that would codify how medical marijuana is grown and sold in California, including whether local municipalities or the state itself would have ultimate control and what environmental and health measures should be addressed.

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Some 1,000 protesters gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square calling for Israel to legalize marijuana.

The protest Saturday night, which organizers dubbed the “Cannabis March,” began near Tel Aviv’s district courthouse and ended at the central square. There, several politicians and activists addressed the crowd in between musical performances and poetry readings.

Left-wing Meretz lawmaker Tamar Zandberg spoke at the event, as did Knesset members Yinon Magal and Miki Zohar from the right-wing Jewish Home and Likud parties, respectively. Former Likud Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, an outspoken proponent of legalization, also spoke.

The Tasmanian Opposition has called on the Government to do more to ensure medicinal cannabis becomes available for patients.

About 50 people gathered at a Hobart rally calling for the legalisation of the drug.

Many of those attending had personal stories to tell about how the drug had helped them deal with the side effects of cancer treatment, the impact of seizures as well as chronic pain.

Natalie Daley, who was diagnosed with a rare cancer two years ago, said taking cannabis oil had significantly improved her health.

"Within an hour of taking cannabis oil my nausea started to lift and within a week I was up off the couch," she said.

"I was back to being myself, being a normal mother and housewife - it was amazing."