VANCOUVER - Don Briere stands behind the counter at Weeds Glass and Gifts in downtown Vancouver, surrounded by shelves of multicoloured pipes and clear boxes overflowing with fragrant B.C. bud.

The affable 63-year-old owns 10 stores, making him the owner of the city's largest marijuana business chain, even though selling pot over the counter remains illegal in Canada.

When asked how a customer would buy cannabis, Briere says all one needs is photo ID and proof of a medical condition that might be alleviated by pot — for example, a prescription for pain medication or a bottle of antidepressants.

"We're making it easy for people to get ahold of a real medication that is natural and safe for you," he says proudly. "Every day we sign people up. Every day."

BOISE, Idaho -- Saturday afternoon, a large group of people marched through downtown Boise. They were spreading around a petition that would legalize marijuana. They say it would only help the state. State leaders say it would only hurt.

A group called 'New Approach Idaho,' along with other supporters, marched and rallied for the legalization of cannabis, marijuana, and hemp in Idaho.

Serra Frank is the President of New Approach Idaho. "There are children all over the state of Idaho who need this as medicine, or at least need the opportunity to try this as medicine, and they don't have time to wait."

Viki Vaurora, a passionate campaign er for medical marijuana, says it is time to bust the myths around the much maligned weed. He is hosting India's first ever Medical Cannabis Conference series that starts in Bengaluru on May 10, to spread awareness about its uses, especially in palliative cancer care. 

"The only way marijuana can kill you is if you smoke 1,500kg in 15 minutes," says Vaurora, a 23-year-old musician and recording engineer."It has no side effects and it cannot kill you. It has no control on your respiratory or cardiac faculties." 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTVU) -- Nine years after medical marijuana became legal in California, the state lawmakers on April 30th voted on a bill that would give medical cannabis users the same right to get an organ transplant as anyone else. 

It would remove what some call prejudice against medical marijuana that already led some users to die because hospitals removed them from the transplant lists. 

That is what happened to 56-year-old Richard Hawthorne. He had viral hepatitis and like four thousand people in the Bay Area, desperately needs a liver transplant.

Just playing with his granddaughter exhausts him. 

“Depression is always here. I am tired of not being able to go out and do anything. I am pretty much confined to the house” Hawthorne said.

DENVER (CBS4)– State lawmakers began a debate on Friday over whether to allow children to bring medical marijuana to school.

The bill passed out of committee with a unanimous vote. It went to the state House floor for debate on Friday evening. It was given initial approval and needs one more vote before heading to the state Senate.

The bill is designed to help the nearly 500 children who use medical marijuana for debilitating conditions like seizures and muscle spasms. Many of those children have moved to Colorado with their families specifically to have access to medical marijuana.

Those children take a special strain that is low in THC but high in cannabinoids, what is believed to help relieve their symptoms.

Former soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress in Ontario may soon be able to access medical marijuana with ease.

Marijuana for Trauma Inc., an organization that specializes in helping veterans get medical marijuana, just opened a new facility in Markham, Ont. The organization's founders, who have opened operations in several other provinces, say there are already 40 veterans in this region looking for assistance.

Former soldier Chris Dupee is one of those veterans. He used to drive 14 hours to New Brunswick to have his prescription for medical marijuana filled and paid for by Veterans Affairs.

TRENTON — The parents of a 16-year-old girl with epilepsy and autism who are fighting for her right to consume cannabis oil at school rejected an offer from school board attorney Friday that would have allowed her mother to take her daughter off campus to medicate her.

"Unfortunately the proposed accommodation has to be rejected due to safety and behavior concerns," according to a letter from Roger Barbour, the father of Genevieve "Genny" Barbour to the Maple Shade Board of Education.

AUGUSTA — An effort before the Legislature to set a blood limit standard for marijuana-impaired drivers was criticized by pot advocates on Thursday who said science doesn’t support it.

Marijuana-impaired driving was a main focus of this year’s Maine Impaired Driving Summit, run by the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety and AAA at the Augusta Civic Center. Medical marijuana is legal in Maine, and in 2016 voters could be asked to decide on dueling proposals to legalize recreational marijuana, which only Colorado, Washington and Alaska have done so far.

"I could't even eat this morning," said medical marijuana patient Anne Genovy as she sat in the front row of audience seats in Vancouver's Federal Court on Thursday. 

"My hands were shaking. The weed relaxes me, but not knowing where I'll get it (marijuana) from or if I'll be arrested is torture."

Genovy is one of an estimated more than 175,000 people with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana as medicine.

Collectively, they wait to exhale as Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan weighs evidence in Allard V. Health Canada. At stake is the future of who will supply patient prescriptions and who is allowed to grow marijuana in Canada.

After a six week break the case has returned for summations.

VANCOUVER — Medical marijuana users’ fight to continue growing their own plants is now in the hands of a Federal Court judge after lawyers delivered their final arguments in Vancouver late last week.

New rules that force patients to purchase medical marijuana from licensed commercial growers ensure they are supplied with safe, good quality marijuana that is grown by industry producers who are subject to stringent standards and government oversight, federal lawyers told the court.

But lawyers for the plaintiffs argued the new rules are overly restrictive and by making marijuana unaffordable for their clients — all B.C. patients — the regulations infringe their rights to liberty and security under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.